Filtration upgrade

[saltynovice378]

Hi and happy new year. First timer and I have the Red Sea Max 130d with upgraded power head. I have all the stock filtration, carbon bag, ceramic bag, mechanical filter and stock skimmer. Tank has been up 3 weeks. 38 lbs live rock...2 clown and 3 peppermint shrimp doing fine, tank is cycling nicely. My LFS suggested removing the carbon bag and go with chemipure. Also he suggested upgraded skimmer to the Tunze 9004 DOC. I want to add corals after calcium and Iodine are added. Do I need these upgrades on filtration or am I throwing away $$? Thank you!

 

[zesty]

ChemiPure Elite is carbon with either some DI resin or the Chemipure blue has carbon and purigen in a mesh bag. Carbon will exhaust rather quickly.

I don't know much about the skimmer on the red sea max, but I've heard great things about the Tunze skimmers.

Do you need these upgrades? Short answer, no. Could they help you out? That's going to be based on your system. A bigger or better skimmer is something that you might want to look into, depending on what you plan on keeping. If you just want a softy tank, I wouldn't worry too much about upgrading the skimmer.

Not sure what you mean about calcium & iodine. A good reef salt mix will have what you need, you shouldn't have to add anything. Just start out with some "easy" corals, leathers, mushrooms, zoas, etc...

Hope this helps. Maybe someone with a red sea max can chime in about their skimmers.

 

[saltynovice378]

Thank you Zesty...very helpful

 

[Viracon13]

Why are you adding iodine and are you testing for it? Be careful as it doesn't require much to overdose your tank. I really only see people dosing it in SPS heavy tanks.

Calcium is important but don't neglect your alkalinity and magnesium as you'll need to keep these in check for your corals to thrive.

 

[saltynovice378]

Thanks Nadez,

I have not added iodine to my tank but a local LFS had suggested it.

 

[bonz]

People use iodine to help with soft corals, macro alage, inverts and predator fish. Some who use it say they see no difference and some say it helps create better water for whatever reason they used it for. I add 15ml once a day and 5ml once a day for a 220 gallon tank and 285 gallons total water volume. I do this because I have fish like lionfish and bluespotted rays that suffer health problems such as goiters from low iodine levels.

Be careful as it doesn't require much to overdose your tank.

How much does it take to overdose?

 

[bonz]

Don't does cal, mag or alk until you need to. Since you said you just started I am assuming you are going to start with hardy corals such as zoas, green star polyps, leathers and similar. These won't require dosing. Keep the system simple learn how it works and then start to complicate the maintance a little. I would leave the carbon in. When you need to change it then switch to chemi pure. No need to waste the carbon. I will look for a new fish store. This place seems like they are pushing products for the short term profit.Keep it simple at first. Most people quit the hobby because they over complicate things and screw their tank up.

 

[saltynovice378]

Thanks Bonz...good advice. That lfs, I did not make a purchase. I was just checking it out. Yeah I'm trying to keep it simple this hobby is so **** addicting though lol. I remove the carbon because its been about 4 weeks and replaced with chemipure elite. What do you know about Vermitid snails? Dozen of them have sprouted up in my live rock overnight. I know they're not to harmful for the tank but I don't want them to take it over. Any suggestions?

 

[KillerKlownFish]

First timer! Welcome!!!
I'm a year in myself. I got the 130d as well. Just ordered the tunz 9001 and will order the media rack as well. I got rid of the media bag. I use the chemi pure elite and Purigen. Don't worry about snails the more the merrier. Once you put hermit crabs in they tend to eat the snails. The vermited suck they spread like wild fire. I just break them off.
Let see some pics!!!
What's in your tank now?