Aquaclear 30 for Filtration

de_1988 · Mar 9, 2019

Hello!

I am starting a new reef tank, my first ever, and I was told that I could use an Aquaclear 30 for a Nano 10 gallon aquarium. My question is, what would I need to put in this tank for Media? Someone told me to use algae and make it a refugium (sp?) but that just totally confused me even more than I already am with the filter media.

Any advice or suggestions as to what I need to use for media would be greatly appreciated!

Hermie · Mar 9, 2019

honestly you can probably use what it comes with (sponge, carbon, bio media); a tank that small with water changes just needs flow. If anything you could take out the bio media after a while and use a different grade of sponge... Once your rock is established

de_1988 · Mar 10, 2019

Oh really? That's easy then.
I plan on using half live rock and half dry rock, so I'm not sure how long that would take to establish beneficial bacteria on the dry rock.

Hermie · Mar 10, 2019

de_1988 said:
Oh really? That's easy then.
I plan on using half live rock and half dry rock, so I'm not sure how long that would take to establish beneficial bacteria on the dry rock.

you probably need more flow though, than just the aquaclear. I had an aquaclear 50 on a 10gal freshwater setup and that was the least I'd want on a saltwater setup. Plus as the sponges get full with detritus or sand or whatever, the flow will decrease even further. Are you planning on getting a powerhead too?

I had a maxi-jet 400 affixed to a large "air-driven" sponge filter in my 10 gal FW now and that's probably more what I'd want in a saltwater, which was 200+ gph of flow (until the sponge gets full and flow decreases). An aquaclear 30 has even less than an aquaclear 50, likely too underpowered.

de_1988 · Mar 10, 2019

No I wasn’t. I thought the flow would be enough from the AC30.

Hermie · Mar 10, 2019

de_1988 said:
No I wasn’t. I thought the flow would be enough from the AC30.

Can you upgrade to the 50? I mean do that if you can

de_1988 · Mar 10, 2019

No I don’t think so.
Does the flow need to be that strong though? I had a different AC30 on a FW 10 gallon and it was blowing the sand everywhere. I can imagine that an AC50 would be even crazier.

Hermie · Mar 10, 2019

de_1988 said:
No I don’t think so.
Does the flow need to be that strong though? I had a different AC30 on a FW 10 gallon and it was blowing the sand everywhere. I can imagine that an AC50 would be even crazier.

well you want to put some rock down where the cascade occurs, you have to work around a HOB's limitations

And the thing is... with a 50 you don't have to run it at max setting... but with a 30 you can't ever go above 150gph, but you said you can't upgrade, so I mean, what's the point of asking if it's appropriate or not lol

de_1988 · Mar 10, 2019

I wasn’t asking if it was appropriate though. My question was about what type of media I should use.

Hermie · Mar 10, 2019

de_1988 said:
I wasn’t asking if it was appropriate though. My question was about what type of media I should use.

it's a bit too much flow to make into a refugium imo, but you could give it a try, just stick a light on top of it and leave it empty, basically grow algae in it (on purpose)

Blue Spot Octopus · Mar 10, 2019

I use Chemi pure blue nano in my Fluval filter for my 7 gallon nano. I would use Purigen if you can put it in a small enough bag. People with the Food Processors make their own bags from Seachem.