Reef Filter Advice

kevtheiris

kevtheiris

Member
Hey all. I am looking to convert my FOWLR into a reef tank.. Right now current setup is a little messed up but here's what i have...
Skilter 350 normal used as a secondary/skimmer
Merlin Plus 60 which is currently down... started shooting the "sand" back into the tank
Corallife 54w t5 (one actinc, one 10k) - going to add a MH light as well, the powerhead i normally use for the merlin is being used as a wavemaker right now.
thats about it except for the heater/bubble wall.
my question is IF i can get the Merlin back up and running should i add a wet/dry, or keep using what I have and just add a bakpak skimmer, or is there a better filter system for a reef tank?
right now the skilter is the only thing filtering the tank b/c i cant get the merlin to stop srpaying sand, but my levels are all ok, the only live stock i have are 3 yellow tail blue damsels, 6 red legged hermits, an emerald hermit about 60# of live rock (more to come soon) and a clark ii which is only about 3".
any help before sunday would be greatly apppreciated... btw its only a 55g tank.
the 2 filters i was looking at were an aquaclear 75 wet/dry w/prefilter
or a Eheim Pro Wet / Dry Canister Filter 2227
 
kevtheiris

kevtheiris

Member
i have about 4-5" of CC in the tank now... so the equipt i have (lights being the exception) is plenty to have a healty reef tank???
Just add a "real"skimmer?
 
wax32

wax32

Active Member
Get rid of the crushed coral and use a fine grain sand. The crushed coral needs to be vaccuumed out like freshwater gravel. Sand doesn't. Then get rid of the other junk. And get a real skimmer.
What size is your tank? You want about 1-2 pounds of rock per gallon for proper biological filtering.
 
E

exile415

Guest
dont use LS and CC..
i second getting rid of the CC and getting LS .. cc doesnt do anything. LS does
 
sw65galma

sw65galma

Active Member
Originally Posted by KevtheIris
Cant I just add sand and keep the CC as well? wont the sand eventuallyfill in the gaps?
No Sand has a unique ability to fall below and push the cc back to the top...
So you'd have sand at the bottom and CC on top it'd look the same...
Don't askk how it does this..it just does...
I've buried empty Snail shells only to have them come back up to the top!
 
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