about filtration

[philr]

I have a 90 gallon tank with an open top metal halide and actinic lighting. The bottom is pretty much bare just a small degree of sand/crushed coral. There is about 100lbs of live rock in the tank with a great amount of coraline purple growth on the rocks and glass. I have built a filter/refugium from a 20g long tank. There are 2 inlets from the tank into filter sleeves, with an ASM G1 skimmer in the sump with a coralife UV sterilizer. The water then flows into the second chamber filled with approx 12lbs of live rock. I currently have no light on this area, and am looking to add some light. From here the water flows thru a sponge filter into the return chamber. There is a pump that circulates this water into a reactor - 2 lil fishes - reactor 1/2 filled with chemipure and nitrate remover. I want to keep corals, and would like to ramp up the filtration. I have learned over the years that no tank can be over filtered. What I would like are some suggestion on what to add next. I will post some pics of my setup as soon as I can figure out how.

 

[Get Hooked]

I use a 25 Micron, 16 inch, filter sock, Skimmer, Carbon and GFO dual reactor and so far, water is crystal clear, filters very well. I think your setup is beyond mine so no worries.

 

[dwilliams87]

You should be fine. All tanks are different though. I put way more filtration on my tanks than I need just because it gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling. Example: 20g display - 10g sump - CPR HOB Refugium w/ built in Protein Skimmer - 50 lbs live rock - Chaeto in Refugium - TLF Reactor w/ GFO. I never see any Nitrates and my PO3 stays under .05 all the time. Also, the flow in your tank is a very important part of filtration that some go cheap on, but IMO it is one of the most important parts because it never allows debris to settle and start problems.

 

[Mike J.]

Agree ^^. It seems you have it under control. Maybe think about adding some macro algae in the rock section with a light. Or maybe an algae scrubber.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I'd get a bigger Skimmer, as the G1 is right on the bubble for your tank. One at least rated for twice your total water volume.
Ditch the LR in the Sump, as this will over time collect debre and detritus, and may cause some slight issues, may not either. Fill that chamber with Macro Algaes. That will also help you in the long run as it will clean up the water column naturally.
Get Chemipure Elite, as it contains GFO, which removes Phosphates, regular Chemipure does not.

 

[Palting]

I have a 90 gallon tank with an open top metal halide and actinic lighting. The bottom is pretty much bare just a small degree of sand/crushed coral. There is about 100lbs of live rock in the tank with a great amount of coraline purple growth on the rocks and glass. I have built a filter/refugium from a 20g long tank. There are 2 inlets from the tank into filter sleeves, with an ASM G1 skimmer in the sump with a coralife UV sterilizer. The water then flows into the second chamber filled with approx 12lbs of live rock. I currently have no light on this area, and am looking to add some light. From here the water flows thru a sponge filter into the return chamber. There is a pump that circulates this water into a reactor - 2 lil fishes - reactor 1/2 filled with chemipure and nitrate remover. I want to keep corals, and would like to ramp up the filtration. I have learned over the years that no tank can be over filtered. What I would like are some suggestion on what to add next. I will post some pics of my setup as soon as I can figure out how.

IMO, the trick to good filtration with liverock for a reef tank is water circulation within the tank. I did not read anything about circulation within the tank in your post. Circulation will keep water continuously moving across the tocks and through the crevices so that water is continuously being processed and cleaned, at the same time preventing dead spots and detritus accumulation.

If you want to talk about overkill, I'll tell you about my system . The DT is 150 gallons, sump is 50 gallon capacity filled up to 30 gallons, and there is a remote dedicated 20 gallon refugium. There is about 150lbs live rock with about 7,400gph flow or about 50X DT volume. Within the sump are two giant biowheels rated for up to 300 gallons, and a skimmer also rated for up to 300 gallons, and two trays for GAC. In the remote dedicated refugium is a 5" substrate and a large amount of macroalgae that need trimming once a month, fed through a 600gph pump for a 30X flow. I used to have a NextReef reactor for GFO, but found that it was not needed since phosphates have consistently been zero, so it's now offline and sitting on a shelf. The tank is 3 1/2 years old now, going well.

 

[philr]

My set up is ok, but I want way more than that prior to adding corals. Can you tell me about GFO? I am not familiar with the use of and honestly have never heard of it. Also Chaeto? Water flow is also important. I had previously used a wavemaker with 4 cora life units attached. Great water movement. However when I added my first bubble tip anenome it got sucked up into the power head well you can imagine how that went. I am looking to keep what I have in the tank: 1 bubble tip anenome, 1 maroon clown, 1 clown gobi, 2 lysamat cleaner shrimp, 1 lysamata peppermint shrimp, 1 coral banded shrimp, and a hermit crab that came along with the live rock. The coral I am looking to ad would be some Colt coral, and perhaps gorgonians.

 

[philr]

Yes you are definitely onto it with that. I will work on both this week.

 

[philr]

First yes I have been using chemipure elite. However I was not aware of the GFO content. Great news. Im kinda getting back into this after a long hiatus. I will be adding algae and a light to the refugium.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Good. The GFO absorbs the Phosphates and help out cleaning the water. Along with a healthy chunck of Cheato, this will help ensure a healthy system. Well that and using all the Reactors helps too.