What kind of filtration do you use?

drummerboy

drummerboy

Member
Just curious, what kind of filtration do you all use? Just a skimmer, a refugium, a canister, a wet dry, live rock, sand? I have a bak pak skimmer, and an ehiem power filter that's more for circulation than anything, but I still have the carbon and bio media in it. Considering taking it out since I can't get my nitrates under 10.
 
brian'sreef

brian'sreef

Member
i have an algal turf scrubber on my 125 it does an awesome job unfortunately you can't buy those..anymore anyway.. when i bought it it cost me 500 bucks but for what it does it was worth it.. my water stays crysal clear all the time. and my nutrients stay down the system also decreases water changes dramatically .. my 125 reef has been set up for 2 years now and i've done two partial water changes.. which is great.. anyway..size is normally the depending factor for filtration use i normally recommend cpr backpak's and penguin 330 dual bio-wheels.. great combo that isn't gonna run you a fortune..
Brian
 
reeferx

reeferx

Member
Brian,
You got any pics of that algae scrubber?
If it is the one I am thinking of, (mysterious black & white ads for freakin' years in fama mag.) I have never seen it.
Either way, post some pics!!
 
reeferx

reeferx

Member
SORRY! I got off topic there, what else do you have in that tank drummerboy? More specs/details would be helpful to deal with the nitrates.
 
brian'sreef

brian'sreef

Member
i'll see what i can do .. i have no pics right now.. so i will try to get some on within the nest couple of day's...
 
striker

striker

Member
It's funny but I started out with the same set-up you had. I had a eheim cannister, bakpak skimmer and a penguin overflow. I've removed the eheim and bakpak when I stocked enough ls and lr to my tank. I have 55lbs lr and 3-4 inches of ls. Now I have an ultra quiet set-up with just the penguin overflow as a filter. I got tired of the noise and bubbles my skimmer and eheim were making. Everything is doing great so far. I do about 10% top off every week and a 10% water change every 2-3 weeks.
 
lu

lu

Member
I have a 125 gallon and all I have is 2 penguin 400's and 3 p/h's for water movement. Also have 4" dsb and about 75"s (so far) of lr. Everything in there is doing great although I have been told many, many times that my tank is gonna crash. All my parameters are great though, so......?!?!?
I am planning on getting a skimmer though. Either a berlin turbo HO or a Turbofloater 1000 HO..
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member

My filtration is low tech....35 gal refugium with ls/rubble rock/caulpera's...approximately 100 lbs of lr and a dsb of approximately 6".System is stable and maturing ...zero nitrates for close to 8 months now....all corals and fish and stuff seem happy and fit!!!Only other stuff is the 6 ph's for circulation(took several to eliminate dead spots) :cool:
 
lordofthereef

lordofthereef

Member
My 29gallon has a eco-system 40 hang on, with three power heads for circulation. thats all for that tank, and its doing great. my 16 gallon uses a aquaclear 300 with chemi-pure, and a maxi-jet 400.
 
reeferx

reeferx

Member
Hey drummerboy,
If you remove the stuff from the Eheim, do it in stages, esp. the media.
It actually probably has quite a bit of biological filtration going on in it, and if you take it out all at once your system will probably take a big hit.
When I had an Eheim on my 40 breeder, there were a lot of squirmies in that media.
 
pat

pat

Member
so it seems im not the only one whose only form of real filtration as the skimmer, and mine is very inexpensive at that......i too have the refugium w/ macroalgae and return pump. got the sand bed and prob 60-70 lbs of lr......everyhting is low.......just gotta work on finding a ro/di for cheap....always working on getting phosphates down and keeping alk up, its manageable as long as i stay on it though
 
drummerboy

drummerboy

Member
Do you guys have good luck with refugiums? I'm really thinking that when I build my sump I'll include one. I have everything to do it except the overflow box. Still can't decide whether I should just drop the money and buy one (they just seem so overpriced for a relitively simple idea) or if I should attempt to build my own. The concept of the macro alge using up the nutrients so that the alge in the tank doesn't thrive seems like a really good concept to me.
 
lordofthereef

lordofthereef

Member
whether you build one, or buy one, make sure to use miracle mud for the substrate. i've been using it for almost two years now, and it really blew my mind how great that stuff reall is! ;)
 
keitho

keitho

Member
i have live rock, live sand, two skimmers, and a couple of filter pads to remove suspended particles. hope this helps :)
 
drummerboy

drummerboy

Member
Hey LOTR, where can you find this miricle mud? I've heard good things about it before (probably from you), but can't seem to find it. Also, do you know of any good places to get macro algae? Not one of the lfs in my town sell it, so I'm going to have to get it online.
 
lordofthereef

lordofthereef

Member
you can get the mud <a href="http://ffexpress.com" target="_blank">here </a>. i can give you some calurpa for free as long as you pay shipping. i have to throw that stuff in the garbage every week!
 
galina

galina

Member
My 29 gallons filtration includes biological=LR, LS. And Mechanical=Protein Skimmer
After that it's just a few powerheads.
Galina
 
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