HOB Filtration

[Uncle99]

And your tank definitely proves without question you don't need a sump

Sump is just a nice place for hiding equipment, but not mandatory.
You don’t need a skimmer, but you’ll need to compensate with water changes. Either method is a cost. Salts more expensive.
You must have flow.
You must have light.
The AquaClear (or whatever HOB) just keeps particulate (uneaten food and poop) out of the water and is also a place to run a bag of carbon.
The trick is to keep the filter sponge clean.
A swapped out the sponge every week.

 

[Ironclad]

This is a 5 year old 65g with AquaClear 110.
It has a small coralife skimmer to keep nutrients in check and waters oxygenated. Opposing Jebao wave makers.
It needs a 10% water change weekly.
Works fine.

Absolutely amazing! Your coral is what I hope my tank to look like one day. I think though I would need to scale up the skimmer if I was wanting to do a 90-gallon tank. The one that you mentioned says in the description that it is rated for up to 65 gallons. Do you think yours would be enough?

 

[Uncle99]

Absolutely amazing! Your coral is what I hope my tank to look like one day. I think though I would need to scale up the skimmer if I was wanting to do a 90-gallon tank. The one that you mentioned says in the description that it is rated for up to 65 gallons. Do you think yours would be enough?

Thanks, it’s fine. That’s not a huge variation IME.
Keep in mind that it’s water chemistry that counts. It’s the magic that makes everything else easy.
Water changes, skimmers, rollermats, carbon dosing, algae scrubs, refuges all are tools that are selected and employed to pull crap (nitrate and phosphate) from the column so they cannot continue to either build or go zero. Not a good trend. Zero worse as that might help the Dino’s and cyanos outcompete those guys you truly want and need.
Maintaning level of nitrate in the 5-15ppm and phosphate in the 0.05-.15ppm and neither rising or falling week over week is a good indicator of water quality and food for the micro-fauna stuff your system will need to thrive, and outcompete the bad guys.

Water chemistry is everything.

Look up member PaulB, he’s used an undergravel filter only for decades and has had super results IMO. That’s all he uses. Very simple but quite effective.

Have fun

 

[Roatan Reef]

I had originally thought about going with a canister filter but heard they can be bad with nitrates. Also, I'm sure you have other media as well such as sponges?

Cannister Filters are awesome for saltwater tanks, easy to maintain, you can load 3 or 4 or 5 filter/media baskets for ultimate filtration, Carbon dosing, chemical and biological filtration.....and they are super easy to maintain.


Pay no attention the old R2R Cannister Filter haters on here!

 

[Skay]

Close is relative to the person with the finances, but I have shown you the two most expensive parts of the sump and how inexpensive they can be using soft plumbing. Do a build sheet on paper diy sump with overflow tank vs two hang on the back filters standard tank. If you can pull it off, you will be happier with a sump imo. I have maybe 200.00 into my 40 breeder sump if I used soft plumbing. I'm in the middle of the build as we speak. I have a 75 gallon reef ready aqueon I purchased for 100. 00 total includes 70 pounds already cleaned pukani Rock, reef octopus 110 skimmer, carbon reactor. I resealed the tank spent two days cleaning equipment. Heaters are new Eheim 100 watt x3 for 19.00 apiece on Amazon as we speak.

i second this, i was originally going to go with a HOB for my 40 breeder, but made myself a sump instead. Having a sump is just crazy convenient. Have a fish or invert being naughty? Throw it in the sump for a few days or until you get rid of it. The space is infinitely more than a HOB could ever give you. I grow out my anemones in my sump and have extra live rock cycling for new tanks i’ll set up in the future. In your case a 40 breeder would be a great setup, with a cheap sump kit from amazon. PVC is super cheap at home depot won’t run you more than 30. Or better yet use soft tubing. You don’t need a fancy return pump, i bought a pond pump on amazon for 35 bucks 800gph. And BUY MOST EQUIPMENT SECOND HAND the deals you get are crazy i spent 50 bucks on my insump protein skimmer that works amazing. You could honestly find a premade sump for less than 100. Hope you’re not fed up with people suggesting to get a sump, i can vouch that you will thank yourself in the future and i myself can’t imagine a decent sized tank without one.

 

[Ironclad]

Cannister Filters are awesome for saltwater tanks, easy to maintain, you can load 3 or 4 or 5 filter/media baskets for ultimate filtration, Carbon dosing, chemical and biological filtration.....and they are super easy to maintain.


Pay no attention the old R2R Cannister Filter haters on here!

How would you go about surface skimming? Would you just get a hanging skimmer? That's one reason that I like the Tidal HOB because it skims the surface.

 

[NASAGeek]

In my experience, the HOB must haves are a fuge and a protein skimmer (I prefer the new Bullet series). The latter is great for aeration, to boot. You can always throw your chemipure elite/blue in the fuge. As others have already mentioned, flow and the rock work is your real filtration with salt.

Also, one more vote for no canister filter. I love them for cichlids and bigger fresh tanks, but with salt I found them to be nitrate factories. I tried both Fluvals and the cheapos off Amazon.

Finally, keep in mind the tank and filtration are the cheapest parts of a salt system. If you’re concerned about cost now, I’d do a bit of research. I’ve spent at least 3 times what I estimated this hobby would cost. Coral is crazy these days.

YMMV. Good luck

 

[Thumbster]

How would you go about surface skimming? Would you just get a hanging skimmer? That's one reason that I like the Tidal HOB because it skims the surface.

I can’t speak for the Tidal 110 but the Tidal 55 that I have is mediocre at surface skimming.

It looks like you can turn a knob to switch between surface skimming or tube intake but it doesn’t really work that way. It intakes most of the water from an opening near the motor and what is sucked in from the tube or the surface is kind of an afterthought in my opinion.

I would imagine the 110 is similar.

 

[Idech]

75 gallons sumpless tank here. I run a Tunze Comline 3172 internal filter with a Tunze doc skimmer 9012 dc. Both sit inside the tank so can’t spill on the floor.

Both do a good job and are quiet. It takes less than 20 seconds to change the filter media in the filter. Both are easy enough to clean, every 3 months or so.

Check my build thread if you want more details and see pictures.

 

[KingSyn]

You should get an Aquamaxx 1.5 HOB
great skimmer, I have one on my 75 gallon and it works great after 2+ years running all day, everyday.

+1 for the aquamaxx 1.5 great hob skimmer

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

75 gallons sumpless tank here. I run a Tunze Comline 3172 internal filter with a Tunze doc skimmer 9012 dc. Both sit inside the tank so can’t spill on the floor.

Both do a good job and are quiet. It takes less than 20 seconds to change the filter media in the filter. Both are easy enough to clean, every 3 months or so.

Check my build thread if you want more details and see pictures.

Tunze Comline are a great option and specifically designed for your sumpless scenario. Good surface skimming, hidden heater / ATO and capable protein skimmer. Clean and unobtrusive, only drawback is they are a little fiddly to dismantle and reassemble for periodic deep cleaning.

 

[Idech]

Tunze Comline are a great option and specifically designed for your sumpless scenario. Good surface skimming, hidden heater / ATO and capable protein skimmer. Clean and unobtrusive, only drawback is they are a little fiddly to dismantle and reassemble for periodic deep cleaning.

I agree about them being a little hard to dismantle and reassemble. The first time I somehow made myself bleed… But you get the hang of it and it becomes easier and easier.

I like them a lot more than canister for cleaning !

 

[Roatan Reef]

How would you go about surface skimming? Would you just get a hanging skimmer? That's one reason that I like the Tidal HOB because it skims the surface.

I don't use a surface skimmer, and have no problems. I only have a 40B, but with the wavemakers pointed upwards it creates a lot of surface activity and I never really have surface skimate to deal with honestly. I also run a small air stone in my tank, kept at about 5 inches below the water line, because I have a closed lid tank, it helps with aeration and also moves water and surface stuff around.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I have a Tidal 110 on my 75-gallon pufferfish tank and a HOB skimmer both work great. I really like that the filter is customizable and you can add your own media to fit your needs.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

A HOB filter doesn't seem like it would do much...what positives do you expect to come from it that would be absent without the HOB filter? (For a tank that size)

 

[Ironclad]

A HOB filter doesn't seem like it would do much...what positives do you expect to come from it that would be absent without the HOB filter? (For a tank that size)

I would be able to use chemical media as well as help with the bio load of the tank.

 

[jft]

Aquaclear Much more surface area sponges and room for chemical media in my opinion, plus they provide all media not just small amount of matrix LOL.

 

[Jcon82]

I run Tidal 55 on a 40 breeder with a significant bioload. The filter itself runs great and is easy to clean. However, adding an HOB 1.5 was a game changer and now all the Tidal does is house my biomedia and Chemipure if I want to add it.

I would focus more on skimming than filtration. HOBs are cheap but they dont actually remove any waste from the water column. It just sits in the filter and continues to contribute to the bioload until you clean it.

The big aquaclears also make great refugium's with some work and creativity!