Canister Filter Suggestions?

Thanks jeremey and mathew. You both really cleared alot up for me Two more questions.

Suppose i use a sump with my 29 gallon. I have a ten gallon lying around that i could use for one. What materials do i need? A sump to pull the water from the tank right? And what do i use to get the water back in the tank?

And with a sump, would i still need a powerhead to reoxygenate the water?

 

To make a sump.....
First you have to create a plan and understand all of the aspects of a sump/fuge. You would need:
-A tank to go under your 29g (sounds like you have a 10g already)
-an overflow box that will hang on the back of your tank. can usually find used ones for around $30. 600gph or 300gph would be fine. This will be a constant siphon hanging off of your 29g and sucking the water down to the fuge.
-a return pump. A mag 5 would work ok for that size. It depends on your overflow size. They have to be relatively close. Once you are set in making a fuge/sump, then we can recommend exactly what brands, ect.
-tubing to come down from overflow into sump
-tubing to connect to return pump and go back into the 29g
-then you would have to make some chambers in the sump to separate the equipment.

Sounds very overwhelming, but once you understand all of the aspects, its a breeze. Keep the questions coming.

The powerheads in your display are for water movement. spots that have no flow are prone to cyanobacterial breakouts as well as other algaes. Reef tanks generally have about 40x turnover. So for a 29gal it would be 29gallons multiplied by 1160gph total. That means all of your powerheads combined with the return pump gph rate should generally be around that number. In cases where you are keeping simple corals or none at all, that much current is not needed but it cannot hurt.

 

What i did on my 29 was take a aqua clear 70 and turned it into a HoB fuge! Worked great along with the LR in the tank! Kept the water clear!

 

So will running the sump be enough to oxygenate the water? Or is that what the powerheads help with too?

So the overflow box hangs on the back right? around 30$ you said and that will pull water from my tank. and it'll be around 300-600 gallons per/hr. Ok got that. Do i have to have an overflow box? I want my tank to look clean. Like i don't want anything really on the outside of the tank. I see all the pics in the tank showoff forum and alot of them have nothing up top. Everything is below the tank. Could u explain that?

Once water leaves the tank it goes in the sump and it goes into the skimmer right? from there where?

 

Yes an overflow box would hang on the back. your other option would be to drain your tank and drill the back to install bulkheads. sometimes that option is not feasible. looks cleaner though.

Let me post a pic of my sump setup.....

water comes into the sump from the overflow box on the right. through the first chamber which has my skimmer and heater, through the bubble trap, into the fuge, and into the return chamber to get pushed back up to the tank.

Might want to look into something like oceanparadise suggested with the HOB fuge. You can get an aquaclear for like 30 bucks and strap a small light on it. But the sump/fuge would be ideal. more water volume ect.

 

The best would be an emp400 filter. You take off the water bars and fill the holes in with putty. They have two filter areas on each side, one side you fill with bags of carbon and gfo and phos remove, the other side fill half way with sand rock and top off with cheato and a small clip on light. I did this on my 29 and 55 and it worked great. Hope this helps!

 

Ok. The tank is empty currently. Could somebody explain what a bulkhead is, and drilling the tank. I don't want an overflow on the back, i'd rather it be cleaner looking. What r my options. mathew you said a bulkhead but what is that?

 

anybody?

 

Ok here we go. Let me clear a few things up. I read in a post that sand is the most important part of bio filtration. Absolutely not true. Rock is the most important part of your bio filter, or better yet the most important filter on your tank. A sand bed any shallower than 5 to 6 inches is going to provide very little bio filtration. It just won't. We can't get enough flow over the sandbed to do any good.
Also, I personally think your skimmer is one of the biggest parts of your system. If you look back there was a time that keeping sps in our reef aquariums was down right impossible and then we finally advanced in technology and the skimmer came out. The ability to keep sps came about right around the time that the skimmer came about. I don't think this is coincidence at all.

 

This is just from my short term experience so far with a canister filter. I have moved from freshwater to saltwater about 3 months ago and with the tank and stand I have and the location it is in I really don't have the option of running a sump(if/when I upgrade I will get a drilled tank and a sump/refugeum). I did not have the canister filter before converting and like a lot of noobs I was in a hurry and didn't do proper research, but I did do some research on filters and I ended up with a Rena Xp2.

I have heard all the negatives about using a canister since, but so far I have not had any trouble using it. This particular filter is very easy to maintain and I can disconnect, clean it out, and have it running again in about five minutes. It can be used to run carbon if needed, can hold liverock rubble and has several filter pads that can be rinsed easily in saltwater.

Aside from filtering, it also adds water flow, surface movement, and about a gallon of extra water capacity. I have never tested over 5 ppm nitrates, but of course that can change as my load increases. Bottom line is I don't think it is better than a sump, but I feel that it is better than nothing. I will be adding a skimmer next week but will still probably use the filter for the extra water, flow, carbon, etc.

Just my $.02