How would you rank these filtration methods?

[kyley]

Hi All,
Background below - but my question? Rank the helpfulness of the following equipment for a 120g mixed reef tank on a scale of 1-10:

__ Protein skimmer
__ Algae scrubber
__ Refugium with macro algae
__ Media reactor with carbon and GFO (maybe rank each individually?)
__ Biopellet reactor
__ UV Sterilizer (although not exactly filtration, it can help with algae, cyano, right?)
__ MaxSpect Bio-spheres, Marine Pure blocks, Brightwell's media, etc. in sump
__ Extra Live Rock in sump
__ Sand in tank
__ Filter sock vs
__ Filter floss (a friend uses this and no socks)
__ Roller Filter (I don't know anything about these)
__ Add anything I'm missing?

Background: I'm recently getting back into the hobby after being mostly out of it the past 4-5 years. By out of it, I mean my tank has just been coasting, not making any changes, etc. Now I'm upgrading from a Red Sea Max 250 (65g with a back panel instead of a sump) to a 120g with a 40 breeder sump. I'm wondering if I should keep using all the filtration methods that I have been, and which I should add. I have been using a skimmer, HOB biopellet reactor, HOB media reactor with carbon / GFO / purigen. Should I keep using all of them? And I've been considering adding both an algae scrubber and a refugium (although the fuge might end up just being live rock, bio-spheres, and hopefully a big population of pods). And possibly a UV sterilizer as well. Thoughts? Thanks,
--Kyle

 

[Robert_ellis]

From everything I've read over the past few years, an algae scrubber would be the best way to go.

 

[sbash]

You have several different types of filtration for different purposes, let's break it down into groups:

Nutrient Exporting, helps export excess nitrates and phosphates, choose one for sure:
Algae scrubber
Refugium with macro algae (display fuges are amazing if you have the space)
Algae Reactor

Chemical Filtration:
Carbon - Used to pull unwanted toxins and chemicals from the tank, run if needed.
GFO - Used to reduce phosphates, run if needed.

Biological Filtration Aids, adds organic carbon to boost nitrate eating bacteria, not needed, but can be useful:
Biopellet reactor
MaxSpect Bio-spheres, Marine Pure blocks, Brightwell's media, etc. in sump
"Vodka" dosing (vinegar, sugar, whatever)

Biological Filtration:
Extra Live Rock in sump - good for filtration and pod growth.
Sand in tank - useful, but not needed, most do it for the aesthetics, not the filtration.

Particle Filtration, use if you want to reduce floating particles or microbubbles:
Filter sock, best non-disposable option, but requires washing and regular (sometimes daily) changing
Filter floss, I have never had success running floss in a sump, works fine in my HOBs though
Roller Filter, these aren't new, but the automated ones look much more appealing than socks

Other:
Protein skimmer, definitely good to have, removes disolved organics and other particles as well as aerates the water column
UV Sterilizer, definitely good to run if you have algae issues, I plan on running this full time when I rebuild next year.

That was fun! Did I miss anything?

 

[ca1ore]

That seems like way too much work LOL. Protein skimmer and ATS work well together and I'd not run a large reef tank without either. If you run an ATS, probably wise to also use GAC.

 

[kyley]

You have several different types of filtration for different purposes, let's break it down into groups:
....
That was fun! Did I miss anything?

Thanks for everyone's input so far! And yeah, I thought this might be a fun, different way of looking at this. I know what all these do, but I wasn't sure what the current thinking on each was. ATS weren't a think when I was into this before and seem to be highly beneficial now. Biopellets were big back then, but I was wondering if they'd fallen out of favor? And I used to think of carbon + GFO as absolutely essential, but maybe less important now with ATS + skimmer?

Good point in that these methods do some different things. But I was just thinking of the biggest impact in a general sense on the health of a reef tank. From what I hear lately, I would rate them like this, but I have some big gaps in knowledge...
8? - Protein skimmer
9? - Algae scrubber
6? - Refugium with macro algae (lower because ATS seems more effective?)
6? - Media reactor with carbon and GFO (maybe rank each individually?)
5? - Biopellet reactor
6? - UV Sterilizer (although not exactly filtration, it can help with algae, cyano, right?)
4? - MaxSpect Bio-spheres, Marine Pure blocks, Brightwell's media, etc. in sump (but cheap, one-time addition, so might be helpful)
3? - Extra Live Rock in sump
2? - Sand in tank - I agree - more for aesthetics
6? - Filter sock vs
4? - Filter floss (a friend uses this and no socks)
?? - Roller Filter (I don't know anything about these)

--Kyle