Need some Advice from someone NOT trying to sell me something

[cjennings1]

OK, so here is the situation: I have had two bio-cubes for about 4-5 months and got hooked on the whole saltwater thing and recently purchased a 75 gallon tank from a guy selling the complete system.
I don't think he took the best care of his stuff, so I have been upgrading everything over the last 4 weeks or so. New lights, new stand, etc. Now I am ready to do the Filter & Protein Skimmer and I would like to know what you all think the best type of filtration would be for my setup. I am thinking about wet/dry w/ protein skimmer or canister or hybrid of both.
Here is the breakdown:
75 gallon tank
Shallow sand bed
About 100 lbs Live Rock
2 270 gph powerheads on either side of the tank
Penguin Bio-Wheel 350 (or whatever is rated for the 75 gal. tank)
Prizm Protein Skimmer
Coralife Aqualight Deluxe (Dual Actnic, Dual 10,000K, 4 Lunar)
Sea Life:
2 Brittle Stars
5 Mexican Turbos
5 Nassarius Snails
1 Fuzzy Dwarf Lion
1 One Spot Foxface
1 Spotted Hawkfish
2 Blue/Green Chromis
1 Lemon Damsel
1 Open Brain Coral
1 Branching Hammer Coral
A few Button Polyps
2 Very Small stalks (tiny) of Pulsing Xenias
I want to add a Harlequin Tuskfish once the Lion gets big enough and eats a damsel or two

and maybe add one more coral.
What is the best type of filtration for this setup? Everything is running good now, but I want to make sure it stays that way and I think it's going to require a better filter. Thanks for the advice!

 

[reefforbrains]

Tuskfish is bad news. They are prone to tearing the place apart looking for inverts.
As for equip recomendations, what is your honest budget? Equip gets nutty especially when everyone seems to think overclocking thier equip makes it run better.

 

[skipperdz]

wet/dry and skimmer very good combo, only have to change the filter floss in sump and empty collecting cup in skimmer. with lots of LR its real low maintiance

 

[cjennings1]

Budget wise, I can afford whatever, but I'd rather not. Most of the stuff I have been looking at has been in the range of 300 or so. I found a complete wet/dry filter with a built in protein skimmer with all the hoses and pumps to make it a plug and go system for like 250 or so. I was just wondering if there might be anything better out there.
If the tuskfish wont work, does anyone have any other suggestions? I was looking at a miniatus grouper too, but he might go after the hawkfish, and that wouldn't be cool.

 

[spiderwoman]

I'd stay away from the integrated wet/dry system + skimmer. You can take a look at what we are using for our 75 system
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/313219/spideys-75g-rr-build
Most components are on the higher end of the selection for equipment than what you'd normally put in your 75 tank. We just felt that we are not going to redo this new tank in the future and avoid the same mistakes we made with our 55 tank.

 

[cjennings1]

why do you say stay away from the combo system? i want something that is going to work for what i have in there and what i have planned (one more fish and one more coral). i was also thinking about doing a little in-tank fuge as well.

 

[spiderwoman]

The skimmer in the combo usually is not the best possible. I looked at one and can't remember the name of it, but the skimmer was something I would never buy on it's own, but the wet/dry part was nice. The skimmer being built-in, most times you can't remove it easily and switch another one in. Combo deals just are hardly never a good idea unless it's custom built. That's just my experience in just about everything.

 

[cjennings1]

lol... probably right, thanks.
any suggestions on the last fish? sounds like the tusk isnt going to work

 

[cjennings1]

well it happened sooner than i thought...
woke up this morning and fed the fish and was missing a green chromis! guess the fuzzy got hungry (i didn't think he was big enough yet).
so once he takes out the other two small fish, i will have a fuzzy, a one spot foxface, and a spotted hawk. Wanted to get one more fish... any suggestions? have a branching hammer, open brain, frogspawn, couple xenia stalks, and a couple of button polyps.
looking for a few good suggestions. thanks