Filtration for a fish only tank

[Bruce17]

Hello everyone

I was wondering what everyone thought would be the ideal filtration system for my sump? It’s going to be a 205 gallon fish only tank. My main focus of fish will be angels and tangs.
I have a bashsea 48” signature series sump, Dual GFO, skimmer, UV sterilizer, bio media blocks and I want to also have chaeto in the sump. Any other recommendations or what order to set it up would greatly be appreciated.

 

[Feet4Fish]

Sounds like a good plan. The one thing be watch is your dissolved oxygen levels. With those big fish they can go down quite a bit. Of course your skimmer and surface agitation are a good start!

 

[Feet4Fish]

Also personally I believe efficient mechanical filtration is super important in a fish only

 

[Bruce17]

Also personally I believe efficient mechanical filtration is super important in a fish only

Thank you very much for the response. Any suggestions for both problems that you think cannot will happen?

 

[Feet4Fish]

Two easy ways to ensure saturation of dissolved oxygen are a trickle tower of some type with requisite mechanical prefilter and/or a Sochting Oxydator. Mechanically pick you flavor.... socks, roller mats, filter pads, cartridge filters.... personally I use filterpads that I can stack to filter anywhere from 200 down to 50 microns. Also have a cartridge filter that occasionally I will run that can polish down to 20 microns.

 

[KrisReef]

Hello everyone

I was wondering what everyone thought would be the ideal filtration system for my sump? It’s going to be a 205 gallon fish only tank. My main focus of fish will be angels and tangs.
I have a bashsea 48” signature series sump, Dual GFO, skimmer, UV sterilizer, bio media blocks and I want to also have chaeto in the sump. Any other recommendations or what order to set it up would greatly be appreciated.

Looking on line at these sumps, it appears to have 3 filter socks which provide mechanical filtration. In combination with bio media blocks and the skimmer you should have plenty of mechanical and biological filtration to keep the tank water safe for fishes. The UV sterilizer is helpful for waterborne pests and algae and is a good addition for fish systems.

The dual gfo will remove phosphates from the water and so you will need to maintain nitrogen removal with frequent water changes. Also, the Chaeto requires some phosphate and nitrate in the water to grow so I'm thinking that you might be better off running carbon instead of gfo if you plan to keep Chaeto growing in a refuge in the sump.

Hope this helps.

 

[Bruce17]

Looking on line at these sumps, it appears to have 3 filter socks which provide mechanical filtration. In combination with bio media blocks and the skimmer you should have plenty of mechanical and biological filtration to keep the tank water safe for fishes. The UV sterilizer is helpful for waterborne pests and algae and is a good addition for fish systems.

The dual gfo will remove phosphates from the water and so you will need to maintain nitrogen removal with frequent water changes. Also, the Chaeto requires some phosphate and nitrate in the water to grow so I'm thinking that you might be better off running carbon instead of gfo if you plan to keep Chaeto growing in a refuge in the sump.

Hope this helps.

Thank you very much. This indeed helps a lot. I forgot to mention that I bought a Klir to put in where the socks go. I’ll probably put a second in before I start adding the angels and tangs. Would you put the fuge before or after the Skimmer? I was thinking of putting bio media blocks in both sections. Thoughts?

 

[Bruce17]

Looking on line at these sumps, it appears to have 3 filter socks which provide mechanical filtration. In combination with bio media blocks and the skimmer you should have plenty of mechanical and biological filtration to keep the tank water safe for fishes. The UV sterilizer is helpful for waterborne pests and algae and is a good addition for fish systems.

The dual gfo will remove phosphates from the water and so you will need to maintain nitrogen removal with frequent water changes. Also, the Chaeto requires some phosphate and nitrate in the water to grow so I'm thinking that you might be better off running carbon instead of gfo if you plan to keep Chaeto growing in a refuge in the sump.

Hope this helps.

Would putting the GFO after the fuge help or do you think that I should just put carbon in the dual GFO system?

 

[KrisReef]

I’d put the fuge before the Skimmer to oxygenate the water before it is returned to the tank

The fuge should remove phosphate and nitrate useethe reactor for carbon to remove dissolved stuff that the fuge and Skimmer can’t get.

 

[Bruce17]

I’d put the fuge before the Skimmer to oxygenate the water before it is returned to the tank

The fuge should remove phosphate and nitrate useethe reactor for carbon to remove dissolved stuff that the fuge and Skimmer can’t get.

Ok so fuge section right after the filter socks and then skimmer and dual GFO before the return?

 

[KrisReef]

Ok so fuge section right after the filter socks and then skimmer and dual GFO before the return?

If you run the dual before the skimmer and then return your water should have maximum Oxygen when it hits the DT. If the water is moving through the system is fast enough it probably doesn't matter the order of skimmer and dual (carbon) "GFO" filters. Again, your fish system won't need GFO as much as carbon, imo.

 

[Bruce17]

If you run the dual before the skimmer and then return your water should have maximum Oxygen when it hits the DT. If the water is moving through the system is fast enough it probably doesn't matter the order of skimmer and dual (carbon) "GFO" filters. Again, your fish system won't need GFO as much as carbon, imo.

Thank you very much will all the great info. I truly appreciate you taking the time to help me with my questions