Best filter system I can buy Please help

Gator996 · 11-25-2004, 05:55 PM

Ok, I currently have a 125 gallon reef tank with a few fish, i am new to this (8 months now) when i first got set up i went with a Tunze reefpack 500 filter with built in skimmer in one end of the tank and a fluval 404 in the other end of the tank as well, this has been keeping water crystal clear but i however have decided to see what others opinions are on the very best (money is not an object when it comes to my tank) system i can get for my tank, would getting rid of the filters and putting in a sump below be a better idea? and if so then what skimmer to use or just keep filtering with the tunze and use its skimmer? someone please tell me what you think. Thanks ahead of time....

JohnO · 11-25-2004, 07:41 PM

A lot of excellent questions and in giving my humble opinion I am just going to hijack this post slightly.

I am all in favour of sumps, in fact IMHO sumps are one of the first things you should consider when setting up a new tank. They hide pumps, heaters etc and give you a greater water capacity, which is a good thing.

You can also include DSB's, algae beds, some more rock, a refugium which are also all good things for water quality.

However, I don't think that it is a good idea to move the mechanical filtration, whether it be protein skimming or a cannister filter to the sump. In all instances I have seen, display tanks are either drilled or have a siphon arrangement which drains the water from the display tank to the sump. It's a good arrangement except for one problem and that is that it drains only the first inch or so of water. So when you feed the fish, or the fish deficates only some of that actually goes into the sump for processing, the rest stays in the display tank and does its thing (yuk). It's true that snails, hermit crabs and other detrivores will eat some of this material, but don't forget that they deficate too. I think it was Dr Shimek who stated that marine organisms only absorb about 20% of what they eat, so as you go down the food chain there will always be some waste that is not processed. For that reason I think a better way to have a sump for water capacity and some chemical filtration, but keep the protein skimming happening in the display tank. Keep the cannister filter for running carbon etc and let that cycle in the sump.

Not sure if I am being very clear above but I hope that you get the gist, and if not I think it would be a good subject to discuss and pull apart.

Now Gator996, I would almost bet you, because of what I wrote above, that if you included a sump in your system right now and moved all the fitration capacity to just cycle the water that was available in the sump, that your water quality would decline.

Having rabbited on for so long, and in answer to your question, IMHO if the filtration you have at the moment is giving you excellent water quality then I would keep the skimmer portion running in the main tank but get that sump and run the cannister in there.

John

reiple · 11-25-2004, 08:05 PM

nice answers John. excellent and well said.

Gator996 · 11-26-2004, 07:08 AM

Thanks for the help, now another question, because of my stand i am limited to what i can get thru the doors, i have about an 11 inch opening to get whatever sump thru, is there a sump that small and would it work how big of a sump do i need? am thinking about just going thru existing wall the tank is setup in front of and putting sump behind it ( water heater room is on the other side of wall) dint reallywanna have to do that but i definately think i wanna do a sump, also if i may what is your opinion on water changes? When i set my tank up i didnt do a water change for 4 months then was told oh you have to do a Water change or everything willl die so i did a 35 gallon change and now doing routine changes, now heres my question, before i did the change everything was perfect now i am losing fish and corals and water is not so perfect, please elaborate on what you think about this, Thank, Joel

Jason McKenzie · 11-26-2004, 08:21 AM

John, Interesting thought, but my question is whether there would be any benifit at all to a skimmer hanging off the main tank versis in the sump. No matter how hard we try the majority of "Waste" is going to end up on the sand or in the rock work and Power head after power head will not keep it suspended either in the first 6" or in the water colum at all. So I don't see the benifit of a skimmer drawning direct from the display area.
In your case I do see huge advantages to Bare bottom tanks with Skimmer intakes at the bottom, but my fear would be sucking in snails or fish. To avoid this you would need a pump pre Filter and this would stop any bigger floating organics from entering your skimmer anyway.

Not to be an a** but though it would be a good descution.
and perhaps moved to a new thread

J

JohnO · 11-28-2004, 08:17 PM

Jason,

I started a new topic here

http://www.3reef.com/cgi-bin/yabb/Ya...712465;start=0

I didn't add your reply but I would appreciate it is you do under your own name as what you wrote has a lot of merit :-)

John

JohnO · 11-28-2004, 08:21 PM

[quote author=Gator996 link=board=Filters;num=1101444956;start=0#3 date=11/26/04 at 10:08:13]Thanks for the help, now another question, because of my stand i am limited to what i can get thru the doors, i have about an 11 inch opening to get whatever sump thru, is there a sump that small and would it work how big of a sump do i need? am thinking about just going thru existing wall the tank is setup in front of and putting sump behind it ( water heater room is on the other side of wall) dint reallywanna have to do that but i definately think i wanna do a sump, also if i may what is your opinion on water changes? *When i set my tank up i didnt do a water change for 4 months then was told oh you have to do a Water change or everything willl die so i did a 35 gallon change and now doing routine changes, now heres my question, before i did the change everything was perfect now i am losing fish and corals and water is not so perfect, please elaborate on what you think about this, Thank, Joel[/quote]

Hello Joel :-)

If you want some really good advice, or what others are doing, then maybe it would be best to post your question in the General discussion or Chemistry Forum. It's a huge topic and is quite controversial so be ready for some differing opinions :-)

JOhn