Really hoping someone can tell me if im going at this right

[trebahamas242]

Hello everyone, I've been into saltwater aquariums for a while and I finally decided to try and do it right. I'm wondering if I have enough of the right equipment so far. I'm currently running a 135 gallon fowlr with an amiracle sl-150 wet/dry filter with bio balls. Also a coralife 125 super skimmer and an aqueon 55/75 hob power filter. I have about 150 lbs of live rock and 150 pounds of live sand, also 2 x 1300 gph power heads. As for lighting I'm running 4 deep blue solarmax 36 inch fixtures. 2 are high output T5s with a 39 watt actinic 03 and 10000 k daylight bulb. Also running 2 of the same fixtures on the high efficiency models at 24 watts per bulb, same bulb types as I listed above. Each fixture has 6 led moon lights. My question is do I have enough filtration and equipment to sustain a fowlr tank. I have a few damsels and banded coral shrimp, the tank has been running since February, fully cycled Andover and nitrite are at 0 and nitrate is at 20 ppm. What is my possible stocking amount for this tank, total gallons is about 160. Please tell me if I'm safe for equipment or I need to upgrade??

 

[huma-huma]

Ditch the bioballs and put live rock rubble in there.
Skimmer- id look into a better skimmer, not a mandatory upgrade since you are going fowlr but it will help.
Id personally ditch the hob filter after 6-8 months of smooth running.
Powerheads are good. (flow isnt of utmost importance in fowlr)
Lighting is fine as well (fowlr doesnt rely on lighting)


All in all id focus on fine tuning your sump. If you only have a damsel pr two and your trates are sitting at 20, theres room for imprpvement sump wise.

 

[huma-huma]

If you are a diy person like i am, you could always pick up a cheap 55g tank, chamber it with acrylic of glass sheets, and have a refugium... Im running a diy 55g refuge on my 125 and it works like a dream. Cost me $75 for all the necessary equipment

 

[trebahamas242]

Yea well there are a few other fish in there nothing bigger then 2 inches besides my blue head wrasse he is about 3.5 all my fish I personally caught myself. I live in the Bahamas. Ill try upload pictures. And why shoul I it h the hob filter if I keep up with the maintenance ??

 

[trebahamas242]

Also my stand doesn't allow for a 55 gallon, DIY stand and never thought about a sump when I made it. Also the amiracle sl- 150 has one chamber. I'd completely have to rethink the design of it. Ill upload some pics to help u get a better idea

 

[Ingy]

Bioballs are not really needed with all that LR you have. What you really need is nitrate export. A way to get a macro algae to grow in the sump (cheato) with a cheap CFL desk lamp. I agree to ditch the bioballs, but if you have only room for 1 thing, I'd go with the cheato rather than more LR. That should lower your nitrate levels.

 

[TheTodd]

Not to hijack the thread, but how much chaeto is needed to do the trick per gallon? They usually sell in about baseball to softball size, so how much does a clump like that work for?

 

[Ingy]

Cheato grows fast. Last week I threw out a gallon bucket crammed full after about 3 months. And that was less than half what I had. Get 1 clump and let it grow and trim it as required (running out of room and growing out of the water).

 

[mr_X]

The more flow you have in the tank the healthier it will be. I don't agree that you don't have to worry about flow in a FOWLR. I would have more flow than you have now. You don't want any uneaten fish food or poop settling on the sand bed and on/in the rock.

I also think a protein skimmer is an excellent way to keep the nutrient level low in any tank, so I would suggest an oversized protein skimmer. I try to pick a skimmer rated for 1.5 to 2 times your total system volume, since manufacturers' ratings can be quite exaggerated.

A refugium is a good idea also, or an algae turf scrubber.

Just make sure you feed reasonably and export whatever you put in the tank via water changes and skimming, growing algae, or whatever you choose.

The wet dry with bio balls is very effective at converting ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate, but it does nothing for nitrate. Fish can tolerate higher nitrate levels than inverts, so if you want to keep shrimp and such, you'll need to remove nitrate somehow. Your live rock will be doing some of that work for you, but you will have to see (via nitrate test kit) if it's enough.