90 gal Damsel tank--filtration needs?

[cougaran]

Fairly soon i want to go with a 90 gal Damsel tank, 6 months after its aged i want a flame angel( they have to be the prettiest fish out there) I have a HOB filter(whisper 5) Any other ideas for Filtration. I would like to put some live rock in there, as it would make a more natural looking tank. But i dont want a tank full of rock either.

 

[IworkatPSP]

You could pick up a Diatom Filter, Vortex brand works extremely well at keeping water crystal clear. Only downside is they are around 75-100 bucks.


As for LR, in a 90g you would have an immense amount of room for rock placement. I only have about 40lbs or LR in my 30g and it still looks scarce.

 

[cougaran]

I was hoping for a few more responses..PLEASE!! What is everybody using? Is it just liverock powerhead and canister?

 

[RocketSeason]

Well, as you probibly know, Damsels make poor community members. I have seen them kill several Ocellaris Clowns in the tanks at the LFS. So I would highly recommend you stay away from damsels.

As far as filtration goes, YOu will want a Skimmer, and of-course Live Rock. Many people go with a Wet Dry Filtration system on their tanks, but that is kinda being phased out for more favorable methods.

Your current HOB filter will not be nearly powerful enough. If you don't want to have alot of live rock, (and thats understandable, because your looking at about 500-600 bucks to do it right) I would recommend a large canister filter, the largest you can find. (about 200-250 bucks) I have a Magnum 350 on my 37 gallon that works well. I would not recomend anything smaller than that.

You will also want to be able to push around the water pretty good. dead spots are not good in a SW tank. Look at investing in about 3 good powerheads. (maxi-jet 1200)

Of course don't forget the skimmer! A good protien skimmer works wonders to remove alot of the gunk. The Aqua C Remora is a great skimmer for a tank that size. (170.00ish)

thats about all I can think of right now...feel free to ask more questions.

 

[cougaran]

WetDry systems are being phased out for what types of more favorable filtration? The real benefit I can see of wet dry system is for somewhere to throw everything there instead of in the tank..I mean basically if you have LR and a deep sand bed in the tank with powerheads hitting them, essentially they are doing the same thing as in the bottom of some of these wet/dry filters right?.
I was definately thinking about strong powerheads as when i have gone snorkeling and have seen the rough water and the damsels darting about business as usual. 3 sounds like a good number.
I want to go with fish too but mainly because damsel are hardy and are a good place to get back into SW. Also coming from a cichlids background i dont mind damsels.

 

[RocketSeason]

wet/drys are being replaced with sumps and fuges. which are really just wet/drys with all of the bio-media removed. Most people have a large sump where they hide their skimmers and heaters, and a fuge they fill with sand, LR and some sort of Macro Algea such as Cheato to help keep micro algea at bay.

Just be aware that damsels are quite vicious. You will need to take this into consideration when choosing future tankmates.

 

[EJS4]

I agree don't rush to damsels. There are alot of other easy to care for fish.

 

[wlam18]

All damsels are bad except Chromis.....

 

[mjvincent]

Damsels sure get a bad rap here... I have two in my tank with a Flash (carpenter's wrasse) and they are doing fine. Damsels are known to be aggressive and territorial (especially the white and black striped and the devil). Overall I believe damsels to be ok fish if you are careful as to what you place in with them (as is the case with any fish). You wouldn't want to put some angel fish in with your prize corals would you?

 

[kwan]

This might have been asked many times before. But what should go into the canister filter? I don't want to have alot of LR round, so I currently have the usual ceramic media for biological filtering and a coarse media for mechanical filtering in my canister. People have said this may become a nitrate factory. Has anyone had any success with this kind of filtration?

 

[RocketSeason]

nope. ceramic media is a hotbed for nitrates. Its basically the same reason people don't use wet/drys anymore. Your live rock will provide the biological needed.

I use a half (or sometimes much less) a load of carbon in my canister. It works so well that my skimmer all but stops working! I am slowly trying to move away from carbon all together, But I think I need another 20 lbs of Live Rock to do it successfully.

To do a canister right, you need to use less media and clean it much more often than you would a fresh water tank.

I would recommend at least taken a look at canisters. IMO they work very well in the saltwater aquarium.

 

[kwan]

RocketSeason: You said the ceramic media is a hotbed for nitrate, are you saying this applies to all types of media? I have two types of media, a coarse media which are ceramic rings and the smoother ceramic pellets that is porous for bacteria colonization. I can see the coarse media being a hotbed for nitrate because its function is to trap large debris. But the biological media should have similar function to LR. So should I be removing the coarser media only?

If I start taking out the ceramic media from my canister, how do I know how much to take out.

 

[RocketSeason]

Ceramic media is sorta like a form of mechanical filtration. It traps detris and that is eventually broken down by bacteria, that bacteria that feeds on the gunk is good stuff, but the rotting food and debris is still trapped in there, making amonia and eventually nitrates.

Carbon removes alot of the impurities from that gunk. so its a better choice right away, however, it does have a "saturation point" and it will stop working. then you are just collecting more gunk in your system which is slowly being broken down by good Bacteria.

The "Ideal" way to do it is to let your LR do all of your biological filtration and let your skimmer remove the gunk floating around in the water. I make sure to clean the collection sleeve in my canister thoroughly. I think that collection sleeves are very important. they collect allot of the really big stuff that can gunk up your system fast. Theses should be cleaned often to remove the waste from your system.

 

[cougaran]

If liverock is the way the to go then I'm wondering if this claim by one of the people on ebay selling liverock is true, "Don't forget that to grow a strong purple coralline algae (purple, green and red rock growth) you must have the necessary lighting consisting of 4watts per gallon of water as a rule of thumb and necessary trace elements of Iodine, Strontium, Molybdenum and liquid Calcium! These are the big trick all the true reef and saltwater hobbyists growing extremely beautiful live rock are doing and understand! "
I'm not interested in growing huge corals, but whatever is on the liverock that does take off is fine by me. 360 watts of light seems like alot of light, i have a 90 gallon.
I also just emailed Tetra and found out that my Whisper 5 does 375 GPH. So the tank would be filtered four times in one hour. This combined with protein skimmer, 3 powerjets and liverock should be enough for now, right?

 

[kwan]

I don't think you need a lot of lighting for good coralline growth. I have only 110W for a 45 gallon and I have coralline everywhere, on the glass, on the PH and LR.

 

[RocketSeason]

I have 15 watts on my 37 and my coraline is spreading. but I will be upgrading to over 250 W (to grow lots of healty sps) If you are thinking of corals one day. you will probibly need 300-500 watts of lighting. depending on what you want to grow. IMO coraline does ok under low lighting conditions, but from what I have seen, IF you want it to go hog wild, add lights.

 

[schoeplein]

I can say from personal experience Damsel behavior is totally situational. I had five in my tank. The largest one of course dominant, and would randomly chase the other ones around. I removed the yellow one. Now the zebra is the only one that chases, and he chases the domino damsel.

Also note that damsels put off excessive waste. I have about 40lbs of LR, a huge plastic box/skimmer/biotank, a bio-wheel filter unit with a mesh filter and a carbon pouch and a UV filter for a tank 4 times the size. My water is extra clear.

Just make sure you have enough cleaning to compare to your feeding/quantity. The more you feed, the more waste you have to clean up. Feed once every two days. Replace filters monthly. Carbon pouch lasts 6-9 months.

I also just recently mounted a featherduster that seems to have taken off.. we'll see how that also affects my tanks filtration when it multiplies.

 

[morphviper]

I think wet dry systems properally used is one of the best ways to keep your tank clear. the only negative thing about wet/dry's is that they can produce nitrates. but if used right this can be avoided and there are many chemicals used out there to remove nitrates. also micro algea works too.


As far as damsels go, if you want a damsel tank then go for it. I think they are mean as ever, but if that is what you want, people should try to help you get to your goal and not knock it down.

If you want a damsel tank, makes sure that your tank is cycled well and put in all your damsels in at the same time. if you wait for weeks in between adding new they will kill the new ones. if you can not afford to add them at the same time sometimes this works, but not always, is completely change your tank around to ruin there teretories and sometimes they wont kill the new fish you add.

I wish you the best luck and if you have any more questions please ask.

 

[kwan]

What chemical is available to remove nitrate?

 

[RocketSeason]

I wouldn't add chemicals to remove nitrate. Nitrates should be removed by both carbon and your Live rock.

If nitrates are very high, then do a few parital water changes over the next few days.