29 gal filtration

[slowpoe]

I have the emporer 280 on my 29 gal tank. I am wondering if this is enough filtration. I also have a aqua clear power head with a filter. In my main filter i am using bio max and in my power head i have carbon. My tank has only been running a month. I just changed 4 gal of water but it still is a little milky when looking through the tank long ways. I have a red sea 60 airlift skimmer coming. is this going to help my milky tank. In the tank i have a baby trigger (I plan to sell him later or move him to a bigger tank), cuc, and a perc clown fish, arrow crab, sally light foot crab. My turn over rate is nearly 20x an hour with both filters running. I have a 20 gallon that i could turn in to a sump but should i? Is my skimmer going to help clear things up? In the 20 gal i have 12 lbs of live rock that i would use in the sump.

 

[salt_hobbi]

Tough one, BUT I do know one thing, I'd pick canisters over HOB filters any day.
My reccomendation for Canister for a 29g would be a Rena FIlstart 2

 

[jumpfrog]

How much LR do you have in the 29? Also what kind of substrate. If there is enough live rock then the HOB filter would be fine. In fact, if there is sufficient rock then you could just use the HOB for water movement only. The other part of the equation is how bio load you add to the tank. If I read your post right you only have 2 small fish. The more load the more filtration.

 

[jumpfrog]

Just noticed something else about your post. The tank has only been up a month?
Are you sure it fully cycled before you started adding life? What you may be seeing in the cloudiness is a bacteria bloom. Please keep a close eye on your levels. Since you already have some fish, you may want to greatly increase the water changes until the tank stabilizes.
Good Luck!

 

[slowpoe]

ok to clarify I had a 20 gallon tank that was well established. I dumped about 10 gallons of that water into the 29 gal then i added 12 gal of store bought sea water. then topped it off with ro water. so my 29 gal tank has been this away for a month. I dont have live rock in the 29 gal cus of the trigger fish. in the 29 gal i have a perc clown a firefish and a trigger (1 inch). In the 20 gallon i have 4 dams and 12 lbs of LR. In the 29 gallon i have 20 LS and 20 lb black sand. in the 20 gallon i have 20 lbs Live coral sand.

 

[jumpfrog]

Then your emperor is your only source of filtration. I would say keep you load small and feed sparingly. There is nothing wrong with adding LR even if you have a trigger.

 

[lagger]

I think you'll be fine with running just the emperor on your 29 gal. It's rated for almost double that. And are you trying to maximize valuable trigger space in the 29 by not putting any LR in? Wont last long my friend.

 

[slowpoe]

my trigger was eating my LR. At one time before the trigger i had the 4 dams in the 30 gal. too. I did put some fake decorations in the tank so that that trigger could hide in.