creative Posted June 12, 2005 Report Share Posted June 12, 2005 Hi, I'm making the leap from freshwater malawi to saltwater reef - I want to play with my small 80L tank before spending huge $ on a large one. I know my basic setup will limit me on what I can keep - but my main consideration at the moment is what kind of filtration? I have a Aqua clear 150 (hang off tank) and need to go to a sump trickle filter or perhaps Aqua oneCF500 - sumps kind of scare me - they look and sound a bit complicated and I find it hard to believe it will be cheaper than the canister - however - if they are that much better, I'm willing to learn what I need to to set up an overflow style trickle filter - thoughts and suggestions are very welcome. I'm patient and like to do things the right way first time. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted June 12, 2005 Report Share Posted June 12, 2005 Suggest you do a lot more reading before you invest. Going small doesn't really save you $ in the long run. The key to a succesful reef tank is getting the condisions right then keeping them as stable as possible doing this in a small tank is really hard and you will spend a lot of money on additives etc and possibly killing expensive stock. The concept of filtation in salt water is quite different to fresh, you want to avoid any fresh water biological type filter system (including if possible any sponges etc on powerhead's etc) because the end result of fresh water style bio filters is nitrate which is bad in reef tanks. What you want is a skimmer, which removes waste before it can break down and end up as nitrate, and as much live rock as you can fit/afford, which converts any nitrates that are created to nitrogen gas. This system is commonly call the berlin method, it isn't the only way to do it, but is by far the most common and eaziest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 12, 2005 Report Share Posted June 12, 2005 Hi creative. I suggest you post this in the saltwater section too (if you haven't already) as many of the salties don't read the other topics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creative Posted June 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 Thanks for your suggestion Caryl, will do. Suphew, really appreciate your comments and your 100% right - a larger tank would be better, but unfortunatly I don't have a choice - It'll be prob 1-2 years before I'm in a situation to set up a large tank. Interesting to hear your comments re: nitrate & skimmers (I'm hoping to get away without one still, but realize that I may have to get one anyway) I didn't realize that the biological cycle for marine was so different to fresh (I know its different bacteria) and didn't know about waste escaping via nitrogen gas. My basic understanding was that skimmers removed nitrate. LFS didn't go into details - any suggestions as to how to get the information I need would be appreciated. I'm still left with the decision of overflow, trickle filter or canister though - any thoughts? Thanks very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianemone Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 trickle filters=high nitrates i have an 80L tank that is setup without a sump, having it like that makes the tank look messy and cluttered and for that reason alon i wouldnt have sumps are great, cannister filters are ok for putting in different media like carbon (even some of the bigger reefs on this site use them) but not for ceramic noodles etc skimmers are great and you can see exactly why after using one. water movement is very important as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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