Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pstanley http:///t/396478/confused-about-filtration#post_3532691
I am starting a new 60 gallon tank which will eventually have some easier to keep corals with a moderate amout of fish and 60+ lbs of live rock. All the research I have done seems to say that you don't need any additional biological filtration other than the live rock (due to wet/dry filters/bioballs creating large amounts of nitrates). What is the proper filtration for a saltwater tank? Do I need any additional mechanical/biological filtration besides a sump and live rock or would I be better off running some sort of biological media in the sump along with the live rock in the display tank? I will be running a skimmer with either method.
I am in the process of buying equipment and don't know whether I need to purchase a simple sump or if I need to buy a wet/dry filter big enough to hold a skimmer.
Hi, The only filtration you can't use are the under gravel types. It really is a matter of personal choice. Frankly the "nitrate factory" is a myth. If you maintain your filtration properly, you won't have any "factory" to concern yourself with. Nitrate is the last stage in our tanks to complete the nitrogen cycle. The true last stage is when it changes to a harmless gas, but it is too slow to really happen with any efficiency, so we do water changes. When you do your water change, rinse bio balls or whatever media in the (once removed to a bucket) old saltwater...that way you maintain the good bacteria.
A drilled tank and use a sump system, is the best choice. It gives extra water volume, gives a place to hide equipment such as the heater and skimmer. It's the easiest to maintain. Rock is indeed the only NATURAL filtration you need, but a refugium with some macroalgae, or decorative macros in the display, are also natural filters...and it will keep a reef system much more stable. Too much rock, and the fish have nowhere to swim. The greatest thing about macroalgae is 0 phosphates and nitrates...it feeds on it, absorbing it, and as you remove the growth, you remove the nasty stuff out of the system.
The mechanical filter is the skimmer, and whatever media you decide to run, such as carbon to keep the corals chemical warfare down to a minimum, or a GFO reactor to remove phosphates.
Wet/dry systems with bio balls is a pain in the butt to clean up, it's all bending over and working your back.
Both the wet/dry and sump w/refugium...can have an in sump skimmer (so a big yes on being large enough), what a joy, you have no idea what a plus that is.
A canister is easy, no need to drill, and the spray-bar makes moving surface water a breeze, and won't take up a power head needing to be pointed toward the surface. It's easy enough to maintain, but it runs totally silent, which it makes it easy to forget. The ONLY danger with a canister is if you have a long power outage of over 24 hours, you don't want stagnant water returned to the tank when power is restored, so you need to take the canister off-line. I ran a canister filter for 11 years on my reef without a single incident.
A HOB filter is easy to reach, easy to swap media and pretty much trouble free....salt creep can become an issue if you have too much splash.
The only real drawback of the HOB or canister, is that you need a HOB skimmer... and to date I haven't found one that's worth 2 cents.
Thanks everybody.