Rock & Sand, little mechanical filatration as only 'filter' medium

[D3DPrintedThingz]

75g tank, have 70 pounds of rock and adding 25 pounds in whenever they ship it to me. If I have 100+ lbs of rock, good flow, and 40 pounds of live sand - will this be enough filtration? I'll do a single HOB filter to put carbon and floss in, but that would be the only non-organic filter I'd run. I plan on keeping 2 clown, 1 damsel, 1 kole tang, 1 mandarin, 1 goby and a bunch of corals.

Is live rock and a good CUC enough to filter a tank? I love the look and idea of a simple, inclusive reef tank that is self sustaining and requires just a religious 10% weekely WC. I also don't have any idea how to set up a sump and worry that chaeto will pull all my nutrients out of the water that I need in the water. Lots of conflicting ideas - looking for recommendations that have some type of data to back it.

Love this forum, love the people. Thank you!

 

[blaxsun]

With the HOB and filter floss, that should be enough. Just add fish slowly so as to not overload your bio filtration.

 

[Midrats]

You're plan is 100% viable.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

With the HOB and filter floss, that should be enough. Just add fish slowly so as to overload your bio filtration.

What is "slowly" I have the clown and damsels in there already. Been up and running for about 4 months, no ammonia/nitrite for 3 months. My nitrate never really gets out of control, I feed 2x daily. I put about 1 gallon of fresh water to top off every day and I think this keeps my nitrates in check.

Am I crazy in thinking that topping off with fresh water (open top, basement with no AC causes significant evaporation) will help with the need for a water change?

I am SUPER ready for coral, the fish can wait until they need to wait. What's a good first coral to start with?

 

[Midrats]

Evaporation won't reduce the need for water changes. What corals do you like?

 

[HeyJay]

Am I crazy in thinking that topping off with fresh water (open top, basement with no AC causes significant evaporation) will help with the need for a water change?

Top off water has no impact on the need for water changes, since it wont add in any trace or other elements and doesn't take care of nutrient export

 

[brandon429]

surface area rules for huge reef tanks like yours:

1/4 of the live rock you currently own would run more fish than you currently run, even if you removed 75% of your rock right now and never added any back (we have done this countless times in the 60 page tank transfer thread whereupon new setup they go to much less live rock)

it does not matter if you don't put anything in the filter and run it empty.

it does not matter if you don't own that filter at all.


it doesn't matter if you hook up six of those filters, then take them all offline at once one day along with 3/4 of your rock, your tank will not mini cycle.

There's never been one instance in reefing where too little surface area was used in a display and the animals died from lack of a functioning filter; this habit to always apply grossly beyond the surface area needs of our systems comes from the freshwater world and has no requirement in reefing.

the rule about surface area in reefing is that everyone is so far beyond the tank's needs with just rock alone, it doesn't matter what we do with the extra, unneeded surface area. this includes sand, filter floss, bio bricks, it's all extra and not needed. your ammonia control remains the same (if you test on digital kits) with or without the extra surface area, and removing the extra surface area specifically doesnt leave you in a deficit, you're free to run without it all.

 

[Airwolf]

Generally speaking, evaporation only rids the tank of water. Salt, nitrates, etc. do not evaporate. Nitrates can get converted into nitrogen that then off gas but that is different than evaporation.

You will still need to do nutrient import/export in some fashion.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Evaporation won't reduce the need for water changes. What corals do you like?

Acropora is legit. I am obviously going to have a Zoa garden , and torch garden would be beautiful (torches are expensive...). Hammers do nothing for me. Mushrooms are awesome and I had a BioCube 29gallon back in 2012 and this was the only coral I had in it, so they have a special place in my heart. The idea of sps, lps is intriguing but I also don't want to stress out about corals dying all the time...

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Generally speaking, evaporation only rids the tank of water. Salt, nitrates, etc. do not evaporate. Nitrates can get converted into nitrogen that then off gas but that is different than evaporation.

You will still need to do nutrient import/export in some fashion.

BOILER UP!!!!!!! PURDUE grad of 2013, cool to see a purdue tag in here. I guess I'll keep changing 10% every Sunday. But what about when the NFL starts... oh no....

 

[blaxsun]

What is "slowly" I have the clown and damsels in there already. Been up and running for about 4 months, no ammonia/nitrite for 3 months. My nitrate never really gets out of control, I feed 2x daily. I put about 1 gallon of fresh water to top off every day and I think this keeps my nitrates in check.

Am I crazy in thinking that topping off with fresh water (open top, basement with no AC causes significant evaporation) will help with the need for a water change?

I am SUPER ready for coral, the fish can wait until they need to wait. What's a good first coral to start with?

I meant in terms of new additions, ie: one fish at a time, with a brief pause between the next one, etc.

No, RO top-up is just to maintain salinity and water levels. Water changes help to remove nutrients and replenish other elements needed for your reef.

A good first coral is probably a soft (leather, mushroom, zoa, etc.) and something you can afford to replace.

 

[Airwolf]

BOILER UP!!!!!!! PURDUE grad of 2013, cool to see a purdue tag in here. I guess I'll keep changing 10% every Sunday. But what about when the NFL starts... oh no....

2002 Grad here, Building Construction Management!