Filter material for 10g and 20g nano reefs

[Lance M.]

Hey I was wondering if I should use carbon at all for my nanos. I've been looking at posts and seeing that people take the carbon out and any sponges as they can produce nitrates?

For my 10g I have two Whisper 10-20 hob filters one with carbon in it and one with phosguard in it and they both have sponges for bateria. I have probably 20 lbs of lr in the tank. Should I just take out all the filter material and put lr rubble in the filters?

For my 20g I have a Emperor 280 hob filter. It has a bio-wheel, a thing I put phosguard in and then the carbon. Should I just take these out and put rubble in there?

I'll probably have pics of my tanks late tonight.

And I do a 30% pwc on the 10g every week and about 20% pwc on the 20g every week. I don't have skimmers for them. (or the money to buy skimmers for them)

TIA

[roka64]

I haven't run carbon in my filter, for quite a few months and I removed all 4 sponges out of my filter.
It sounds like you stay on top of your PWCs. If you aren't having problems, you are in good shape. If you notice nitrAtes rising, you might look to replace/remove the filter media and replace with LR rubble.

[Lance M.]

Ok I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and when I set up my next tank I'll leave the sponges and carbon out.

[DragonForce]

I like to run carbon on my 37g mixed reef. Mainly because I have softies, lps, anemones, and sps so there is a nice toxic soup brewing in there at all times.

[lando]

I would consider replacing the media in one whisper with LR rubble. Use a small bag of chemi-pure in the other.

[Sadielynn]

We run media in ours 7/24 I run carbon and purigen /chemi pure in mine ...
This just absorbs any chemicals that may make thier way into the tank. It also prevents the stuff from having a chemical war too.

[Lance M.]

Thanks for the advice. I haven't been able to get any lr rubble for the 10 gallon filters cause I already bought all of the rubble at my lfs for my 20 gallon filter. There was some rubble but it wasn't cured yet. So I'll have to check back next week. I need to find the little media bags I had... They are somewhere but I can't find them......... I guess I'll just buy some more since they are only like $3.

How long does chemipure last? I'm looking at it in a catalog, one 10 ounce unit for a 40 gallon tank remains active for 4-6 months. Is that correct?

[Sadielynn]

I like to change my chemipure, and purigen out every 3 months and the carbon monthly . I rinse all weekly tho

[beachbumin]

We took the filter out and replaced with a base of LR rubble and started a little patch of Chaeto above that. Worked great and only thing we need to do is trim every once and a while, HTH

[Lance M.]

I got the Chemi-Pure today and put it in. It's a pretty big bag for the 10 gallon. I'm going to fill the other filter with rubble tomorrow after I take a hammer to the rocks.