Parts to buy for the inside of my tank?

[treg]

Hi Again,
Ive been to a few stores and have had a look around at things to buy for my tank (but I intend to buy online) and i'm just not sure what I want and/or need... For a recap on my tank - I have a 29 gal. and will be ordering about 60 lbs of ls and 50 lbs of lr. After it cycles I will have some crabs and a couple clowns. Most likely a little bit of coral. This will be a test (practice) tank thru summer and I hope to end up with a 75 (if all goes well) by fall.
Things I'm not sure about are a protien skimmers, filters, power heads, air pump.
My hardest part is the skimmer and filter. Everyone I talk to gives me a different answer (even guys in the same store). Will I be better off with a nice canister filter like an Eheim, or better off with a decent skimmer? Or should I have both? OR maybe a skimmer and a smaller hanging filter??
As far as the powerhead, I know I want one, just not sure Which one and would also like to know is there such thing as too much current? Would say, 300-400 gph be too much? I dont want to knock my rocks over! Should the flow push back to front or left to right or is that important?
Air pump - Do I need one? Ive been told not to use one.
Once again thank you for the comments, all are welcome.

 

[krishj39]

IMO, your best bet is to get a skimmer. I would suggest not getting a canister filter. They really serve little use other than additional water flow. You don't need an air pump for any reason. 300-400gph of flow wouldn't be too much, IMO, but it IS possible to have too much flow. I recommend maxi-jet brand powerheads. Where the power head flows is determined by how your tank is set up. The goal is to eliminate dead spots in the water, and chaotic water movement is great. So, 2 smaller powerheads on either side of the tank, aimed towards each other will be better than one larger powerhead. Assuming you don't want to deal with the hassles of a sump under the tank, you can't really have a wet/dry filter (which is great filtration for a SW tank). Instead, you may consider getting a power-wheel of some kind. I don't know how well they work, but they are SUPPOSED to do the same thing as a wet/dry filter (cultivate bacteria which eat ammonia and nitrite). Hope this helps, hard to answer so many questions without rambling on.

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

It's always a drag getting conflicting advice - so I'll do it anyway.
After a long time doing research on the subject I believe the best and least maintenance way to properly filter your tank is with nature (the Euro/American Method)
Get your water temp and salinity right and then follow the steps below.
1. Get two power heads (opposite sides of the tank for water flow) (about $70.00)
2.You should make sure you set up a plenum Deep Sand Bed (DSB) for bio-filtration. Take 1" of aragonite biofilter sand covered by strips of plastic tubing cut in lengths across the bottom of the tank. cover this will a plastic window screen (has to be plastic). Cover this with 3" of a combination of 2" Live sand and 1" of SouthDown Play sand from Home Depot.
3. Add your live rock as you need for asthetics.
4. Buy a protien skimmer rated at or above your tanks capacity. Cost between $70-250.00) (I went with $70.00)
5. Buy the cheapest filter from Wal-Mart and rip out the guts and stick a bag of Chemi-Pure Carbon filtration in it (cost $20-30 fro the filter and $6.99 for the Chemi-pure)
6. After your tank cycles for three weeks, do a 5-10% water change weekly.
This will be your filter.
It sounds hard but if you forget to do a water change for couple of weeks, your tank will be fine. Forget all that other stuff - nature is better.

 

[treg]

Originally posted by ocellaris_keeper
It's always a drag getting conflicting advice - so I'll do it anyway.
lol - I like that.
2.You should make sure you set up a plenum Deep Sand Bed (DSB) for bio-filtration. Take 1" of aragonite biofilter sand covered by strips of plastic tubing cut in lengths across the bottom of the tank. cover this will a plastic window screen (has to be plastic). Cover this with 3" of a combination of 2" Live sand and 1" of SouthDown Play sand from Home Depot.
Ok, 2 votes for a skimmer and 2 powerheads. I like what you are both saying but ocellaris, you kinda lost me on step #2 here. Can you explain the plastic tubing and plastic window screen a little more? Also what does the southdown sand give me over ls? Im just curious to why I would be doing this.
Thanks for the help guys.