newbe bought tank w/fish and all, no filtration

[meg&ran]

:notsure: It is a 75gal,the seller had it for 3years. It has 10 fish and some corral with 100lbs of live rock . The only thing he has for filtration is a protein skimmer. I dont know, but everyone i talk to tells me i am crazy to trust that. but seller tells me thats the only filtration he had in the last three years. :notsure:

 

[essop3]

There are 3 types of filters
1. mechanical- sponges or floss that water travels through to remove large floating stuff
2. chemical- a bag of carbon droped in the sump
3. biological- bacteria that will be on your live rock
Other filters, like canisters, can be added but aren't required. They are just extra mechanical filters usually.

 

[reefiness]

does it have a fuge?

 

[meg&ran]

But do i need to get one. The seller told me i didnt and that he had one in the tank over two and a half years ago. But took it out and it has been fine. he allso told me that he dont do water changes inless he had to. The last time he changed it was six months ago. Everything in the tank is liveing and in great health. what do i do???? if its been good for three year with out one. Do i go on without one and see if the seller is right????

 

[meg&ran]

Im sorry but i have not found info to really tell you what a fuge is. But i dont have anything in or out of tank, but the skimmer, heater and two power heads. So i would say no.

 

[harndog]

If there is no sump or fuge I can not see it hurting to add at the very leat an Emperor 400. It has you floss filters filled with carbon and increases your turnover rate as well. Coupled with the 100 lbs of rock and the skimmer it should work very well. I to have in the past been a little lazy on water changes. If you can take a test kit over and test the water I bet he has some pretty high nitrates an low calcium alk. Unless it has a very deep sandbed that would help alot in tanking care of the tank. If so when moving it be carful not to stir up the sand to much it will cause you some problems.

 

[meg&ran]

The nitrate are 5.0 and nitrites are .25 Calcium alk dont have a tester that has that but will get one if needed. and for the sand it may be to late i moved the tank yesterday baged sand. when i put it in i put one lay of rock in(base). Then put sand in, it was about 3/4in of sand. water was cloudy for a day.

 

[birdy]

You can most certainly run a tank with only a Protein skimmer and LR and LS, it works very well for a lot of people.
I have always been a fan of the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" idea. Set it up see how things are going.
Do you have any powerheads in the tank for circulation. If not that is something that would be beneficial.
At some point you may want to add a way to run water through a bag of carbon, A small cannister filter, or a Fluidized bed filter are the best ways to do that.
A FUGE, is short for refugium, this is a seperate tank (conected to the main tank) that many people use for natural filtration, they put macro algae in the tank, the algea aborbs many of the bad or excess nutrients in the tank, and grows, then you remove some of the algae and in doing so remove the nutrients from the tank.

 

[37g joe]

a reefs natrual filtration is bacteria and all the little organisms who live with in the reef well als evapration but we wont get into that its called natrual method if you want to be more secure but dont want to have a filter add about another 50 lbs of live rock a natrual systen is about 2 pounds of rock per gallon but since rock displaces water you might not need that much now that i think about it but it would not hurt just would make for a healthier tank and yopu would also feel like you made it your own dont go for small peices of rock if you take my advice with a tank your size the smalles rock peice you would want to go would be about 8lbs.

 

[puffer32]

I have same set up, plus an emperior 400. I put carbon in one side an rock rubble in the other. I use an aqua C Remora skimmer (one of the best out there) so if you have a good skimmer, some power heads for circulation, ad the emperior and you are good to go!

Oh yeah, I do bi weekly 10/20% water changes with RO water, maybe not always neccesary, but do it anyhow.

 

[danedodger]

There's lots of different opinions out there on filtration!!! None of them are wrong or necessarily better than another. As long as what you use results in a tank you're happy with and healthy, happy animals that's the right filtration to use

I think your best bet is to learn more about all the different filtration methods, their benefits, drawbacks, how they work, etc. then see what you think will work for you.

 

[trainfever]

The thing you are forgetting is that he had the tank set up and running for three years. He originally had a filter in the tank but removed it after the tank was established. You have now moved the tank and disturbed the bacteria colonies that were living in the sand. You are starting all over again. Chances are that you are going to have a cycle in your tank and you are going to need a filter to help you out. I would add a filter.

 

[meg&ran]

Thanks been alot of help, I'm learning I watch my water closely to see how it doin and will look over all filtration systems and take note of Emperor 400

 

[meg&ran]

Thanks been alot of help, I'm learning I';ll watch my water closely to see how it doin and will look over all filtration systems and take note of Emperor 400. i changed my water at day two. the waters pH is at 7.8 will filtration systems help me. and how bad can the pH get before i start loseing life. The fish look happy swimming around.

 

[scubadoo]

Originally Posted by meg&ran
Thanks been alot of help, I'm learning I';ll watch my water closely to see how it doin and will look over all filtration systems and take note of Emperor 400. i changed my water at day two. the waters pH is at 7.8 will filtration systems help me. and how bad can the pH get before i start loseing life. The fish look happy swimming around.
PH will vary throughout the day with the lower readings usually occurring at night and early in the morning due to the lights being off. It is always best to test your PH about the same time each day.
Make sure you have power heads that casue some rippliing/ breaking at the surface. If you moved the system rather quickly and the substarte and live rock remained in water/wet then you probably retained most of the beneficial bacteria. Some may have died off so minotor the water parameters closely. You may want to reduce feedings somewhat over a two week period to allow the biological filter to catch up for a little die-off.
IMO...if you kept the live rock and substrate in water/wet for a brief period you will probably not see a spike.
The biological filter lives on surfaces not in water.....so even if you used mostly new water you still should be okay...assuning wwhat I have mentioned.
IMO...with regular water changes you do not need any additional filtration.

 

[photo guy]

One of the coral tanks (looks to be about 250-300 gal) at a LFS uses onlay a skimmer for filtration. I was astonished to see that that's all they had. It's the same skimmer I have (ETSS 600) but I'm also running a sump.

 

[trainfever]

Scub, if you reread Megs 4th post, you will see that he/she already bagged the sand. That is why I think he/she is going to have another cycle.

 

[scubadoo]

Originally Posted by trainfever
Scub, if you reread Megs 4th post, you will see that he/she already bagged the sand. That is why I think he/she is going to have another cycle.
If the sand remained moist and was only out of the water for a brief period I doubt there was much die-off of the bio-filter .
Thanks...I missed that post...but do question if the nitrite reading is accurate....especially if all are doing well in the system with the presence of nitrite.

 

[meg&ran]

i dont know how long i need to wait after water change.(about 1/3 of 75gal) but my testings are...
pH_7.8-8.0
ammonia_.50
nitrite_00
nitrate_5.0
do i need to be doing anything or is it normal
(did water change two hours ago)

 

[brolik1]

Originally Posted by meg&ran
i dont know how long i need to wait after water change.(about 1/3 of 75gal) but my testings are...
pH_7.8-8.0
ammonia_.50
nitrite_00
nitrate_5.0
do i need to be doing anything or is it normal
(did water change two hours ago)
Well for starters the ammo has to be at .0, and a nitrate of .5 isnt bad but for a tank with corals zero is preffered. I would bring the ph to about 8.0-8.3. Water changes will bring the nitrates and ammo down for you, and a wet/dry filtration is good for your tank. Emporers have bio wheels which in my case is a nitrate factory, why a bio wheel when you have LR and LS? Try and put more LS you will need about 2-4" of it and then I believe you are fine. The next water chage you will should be next week or so.