set me straight

[jtroutine]

I am currently cycling a folr tank and I have a magnum 350, for those not familliar with it is just a mech and chem canister. What is the deal do I need it, is it going to house trates, is the carbon mess with skimming action? I have heard bits and pieces of the debate on this subject. I know some reefers only use a skimmer and that is it. Can anybody shed light on this subject please.

 

[birdy]

The general thought is that the filter media will eventually become a problem for nitrates, If you clean the cannister at least weekly then it shouldn't be a problem, but that is a pain in the butt. You can take all the media out (you shouldn't need it if you have a DSB and enough LR and a protein skimmer) and just use it for water circulation, then if you need to run carbon or phosphate sponge occasionally then it is there. I hope others will put in their opinions also.

 

[jtroutine]

hey thanks I hope other people respond too, I just got done leaving a reply in your post. Hope everything goes well. I remember when my kids were born best day of my life!!!

 

[thomas712]

There will be people who will say nitrate trap, but that depends on your feeding and maintanance habits, so if you don't maintain the canister then yes it will be a source of nitrates. Other than that it can be another source of water movement and when you turn your other power equimpent off if you have your canister return and intake about half way down the water colum you can leave it on while other equipment is off. Depending on how a person uses carbon and or phosphate removers it can be a good way to force the water through those two medias other than just placing a bag in your sump in a passive way, like I said depends on how you use them.
As to carbon messing with the skimming I would say no it will not, I believe carbon can pull out some things that most skimmers will not. All depends on your usage and equipment. I like to use carbon 24/7 or chemi-pure.
Thomas

 

[jtroutine]

so would you recommend that I just run the carbon cartridge and take the filter sleeve out? Right now I am not running it at all, just starting it twice a day to keep the water from getting stale in the canister. Also I dont know if my skimmer just got broke in or if it is becasue I turned the canister off but the skimmer is skimming where before there was just a 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of white foam.
Joe

 

[thomas712]

Alright if you are cycling a tank, then first off you will not need the skimmer unless you are curing your liverock in the tank then use the skimmer. Leave the lights off for a few more weeks or for just a few hours a day. I do not see anything about power heads or your turnover rate, so I think maybe you could use the extra circulation of the canister.
I would not leave it off and only start it a couple of times a day, someone may say I'm wrong here but letting your water in the canister sit might start an anerobic reaction and then by turning it on and desturbing that might not be such a good idea, a guess on my part.
On my 90 I personally did not run any carbon until the cycle was over, a 40 gallon water change, and I started to feed a couple of chromis fish, and was well into a diatom bloom, then I added a batch of carbon to the system, and the water became noticably clearer.
If it were me, I would run your canister, at the very least for added water circulation. When you start adding fish and a cleanup crew for the diatoms, then I would add the carbon. It will be a while before my 90 is stable and until then I will run carbon, I have run carbon for years on my 55, both reef tanks.
Others only run carbon for a couple of hours a week. Here are a couple of links on carbon, you decide on how you will use it.
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...%20carbon.html
http://www.hallman.org/filter/gac.html
Thomas

 

[jtroutine]

Hey thanks awsome info I really do appreciate your time and trying to eduacate me on this matter. I do have powerheads i will update my profile.
As far as the skimmer I recieved in mail last week and didnt use other then to play around with. I did let it run like two days and there was no foam. I had to tear down my tank to get a new stand, (long story)so as you could expect my water clarity went down the drain when I started putting back together I thought I would start the skimmer to see if it would help speed up cleaning the water, and wal la, it was skimming brown stinky foam so I have left it run since and it has been skimming since, I dont know if this is related but I also stopped running the canister. I see what you are saying about the aerobic reaction in the still canister, I wont do that anymore in fact what I will do is just empty the carbon take the filter wrap out and use it as a circulation for now till I do more research on the matter.
Again thanks
joe