Is it possible to have too much filtration?

[T33BLACK]

On a 135g mixed reef I have a sump, refugium, skimmer, uv sterilizer, carbon and gfo reactor, filter socks, perform water changes, and have some chemipure. I just feel sometimes maybe my tank can be too clean? Maybe I'm removing a little too much of things that the corals may need to thrive. What are your thoughts?

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

You can have too much filtration for sure. Have some of your corals not been growing well and is that why you’re creating this thread? It’s never a bad thing to have a clean tank, it’s just bad when some of your parameters start going to 0.00 (ie phosphate, should be at 0.03 ideally). If everything looks happy, then I would say your filtration is fine. If not, you may want to either feed more or use less filtration.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

On a 135g mixed reef I have a sump, refugium, skimmer, uv sterilizer, carbon and gfo reactor, filter socks, perform water changes, and have some chemipure. I just feel sometimes maybe my tank can be too clean? Maybe I'm removing a little too much of things that the corals may need to thrive. What are your thoughts?

Yes it is possible to over filter that’s when nitrates and phosphates bottom out and coral die from starvation

 

[RocketEngineer]

The short answer is yes, you can have too much filtration. The solution is to either increase input (feed more) or decrease filtration. But there are all sorts of variables in that equation so each system will have different needs and different reactions to changes.

 

[00W]

Yes you can definitely over filter any tank. I think many of us have.
Every tank has its sweet spot of stability. That is for each one of us to find out for ourselves.
I try to go as organic as possible and only do one thing at a time to see what works.

 

[hcoop]

Depending on what chemipure you have you could get rid of either the gfo or carbon or keep gfo and carbon and get rid of chemipure e.g. the original I believe does the same thing as carbon whereas the elite does the same thing as gfo and actually has gfo in it. If you wanted to try what you could do is test all of your parameters, take say the chemipure(or whichever of your choosing) out, wait 2 weeks and test again and see what you got.

 

[polyppal]

On a 135g mixed reef I have a sump, refugium, skimmer, uv sterilizer, carbon and gfo reactor, filter socks, perform water changes, and have some chemipure. I just feel sometimes maybe my tank can be too clean? Maybe I'm removing a little too much of things that the corals may need to thrive. What are your thoughts?

Chemipure is carbon/gfo. A refugium and a sump are the same thing... You just buying everything you see?!

 

[tamanning]

are you spot feeding your corals what is in your refugium and is it starving? Yes you can over filter.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

Chemipure is carbon man don’t need to run both lol. I run chemipure blue, a little GFO(both in reactors), and have a large refugium. Works extremely well in my 120

 

[T33BLACK]

Yea I'd like to do more testing and see what i can eliminate if anything and really narrow in in the simplest settings. Maybe eliminate water changes or at least spread them out more , get rid of the reactors and just run the refugium to deal with it so many options

 

[ReefHomieJon]

Yea I'd like to do more testing and see what i can eliminate if anything and really narrow in in the simplest settings. Maybe eliminate water changes or at least spread them out more , get rid of the reactors and just run the refugium to deal with it so many options

I haven’t done a water change in a year man. Tank only been running for a year and a half. If filtration is good and you dose trace elements(I do Red Sea easy dose with calcium) then in my experience you don’t need them. Unless you have an emergency with like an anemone dying or something. My tank didn’t take off until I stopped doing them. But “every tank is different”.......

 

[T33BLACK]

Chemipure is carbon man don’t need to run both lol. I run chemipure blue, a little GFO(both in reactors), and have a large refugium. Works extremely well in my 120

Lol I know just a little overkill. I currently have the chemipure blue in. I'd like to get it to where I can just run my refugium well and maybe just do 1 or 2 water changes a year.

 

[T33BLACK]

I haven’t done a water change in a year man. Tank only been running for a year and a half. If filtration is good and you dose trace elements(I do Red Sea easy dose with calcium) then in my experience you don’t need them. Unless you have an emergency with like an anemone dying or something. My tank didn’t take off until I stopped doing them. But “every tank is different”.......

That's good to know I am dosing but do try to do a water change every 2 weeks like 20-30%. Maybe I should cut back

 

[ReefHomieJon]

I wouldn’t go water-changeless without running carbon tho. Lots of impurities that will build up having the same water.....

 

[ReefHomieJon]

That's good to know I am dosing but do try to do a water change every 2 weeks like 20-30%. Maybe I should cut back

Your testing will tell you when a water change is needed.

 

[tamanning]

I wouldn’t go water-changeless without running carbon tho. Lots of impurities that will build up having the same water.....

I haven't done a water change in close to 8 years . I only run carbon if I see the water get colored then I will hang a bag in my sump until it clears. this works for me I set my system up to deal with most issues. If you make changes to the way you are running your system do it a little at a time. Nothing fast is good in a reef tank.

 

[vlangel]

On a 135g mixed reef I have a sump, refugium, skimmer, uv sterilizer, carbon and gfo reactor, filter socks, perform water changes, and have some chemipure. I just feel sometimes maybe my tank can be too clean? Maybe I'm removing a little too much of things that the corals may need to thrive. What are your thoughts?

It can depend on what sort of reef you are keeping. My reef is a natural nutrient reef with a lot of ornamental macro algae, some feather dusters,LPS, soft coral and a NPS gorg, so it can definitely be too clean. I actually sold my skimmer, I have no UV, no reactors and do not run any filter material most of the time. The Live Rock and sandbed are the predominant filter but the sponges and macros also take up a lot of nutrients. In fact they need those nutrients or they will not thrive.

However if your reef is predominantly SPS, they need a lot of food but still require clean water conditions. So on an acro tank I think a lot of that equipment would be helpful in maintaining cleaner water.

 

[sde1500]

A refugium and a sump are the same thing

Huh? No they aren't...

Yea seems like over kill. Everything has a purpose, but need to match goals of the tank with what you are applying for filtration. I wouldn't use UV ever, but for running all that I'd expect it to be for some darn heavy feedings.

 

[polyppal]

Huh? No they aren't...

A refugium is a sump with some algae in it. Lets not split hairs and start pointless annoying arguments...

 

[ClownWrangler]

A refugium is a sump with some algae in it. Lets not split hairs and start pointless annoying arguments...

My refugium’s are not sumps, they are large hang on basket filters with chaeto where the filter media is supposed to go. Take that judge Judy. :0)

I rigged a cheap $5 double sponge filter to the intake, which is really just to keep the chaeto clean. It's an Aquaclear 70 HOB. The high flow vertically through the chaeto works extremely well, better than a regular sump type refugium IMO. The high flow keeps the chaeto pristine and I never have to turn it, only harvest half a couple times a month. This also provides enough flow and turnover for a 55 gallon tank, though it's currently on a 20Long. the 9 watt grow light is all that’s needed for the chaeto to grow like crazy and remove nitrates low even in an over-stocked tank.