Originally Posted by pushinweit
I am setting up my 125 gallon tank, and I have some questions about filtration. Right now I am planning on using two emperor 400's to filter my tank. For those not familiar with the emperor 400 they are of the variety which hangs on the back of the tank. Each has a biowheel, and from what I've heard they do a fairly good job. The tank I am setting up will be a reef tank with a 4-4.5 inch deep sand bed, and approximately 100-125lbs of live rock. For those more experienced reefers, I was just wondering if this set up would do the job. If not any information would be extremely helpful.
Excuse my spelling etc...keyboard is shot, so Ill do the best I can...
No, do not get the emperors. They will turn into a maintenance and nitrate hassle. Better off getting a protein skimmer by far. A sump is great as well, but if you dont have the room, a tank with a protein skimmer alone is absolutely fine.
Also, make sure you add a lot of flow using powerheads of some kind. You want to turn the volume of water over around 15x per hour or more. Bad flow accounts for a lot of problems for beginners that quickly get out of control.
Make sure any salt mix water has circulated for 24 hrs. + for proper ionic balance.
Larn a bit about the "buffer system" in a marine tank...the alk and calc relationship that maintains pH.
Start slow...a couple of fish and some cleanup crew.
Of course,m this is once your tank has cycled....
