More flow or more mechanical filtration?

Katze · Apr 17, 2025

Hello everyone!

In my larger (now only) reef aquarium, I have been seeing lots of detritus since a long time, it came with high, ~50 ppm nitrate aswell.
According to what I'm planning, I'd either increase the flow in DT to keep the mess suspended until the filtration catches it or I'd add a filter roller since I have no mechanical filter running at the moment. I do have a RedSea RSK300 installed, that is the only working export currently. Filter socks are unfortunately a no go due to my sumps' design
What to know about the tank:
Volume: 100g
NO3: ~50 ppm (salifert)
Total filtration:
RedSea RSK300, Refugium, some biological media
10% weekly waterchange (I'm taking up as much detritus as possible during the procedure)
Feel free to ask questions or to share your idea!

Mr. Mojo Rising · Apr 17, 2025

More flow to keep detritus suspended, and some mechanical filtration to remove the detritus.

But with a refugium and weekly water changes, I'm surprised the nitrate is staying that high.

Katze · Apr 17, 2025

Mr. Mojo Rising said:
More flow to keep detritus suspended, and some mechanical filtration to remove the detritus.

But with a refugium and weekly water changes, I'm surprised the nitrate is staying that high.

Well, currently I can only choose one, but I don't really know which one would be the more important
(I'm surprised aswell :D )

BryanM · Apr 17, 2025

What is flow like in the DT now?

Did you inherit this tank and its 50 nitrate numbers?

If you increase flow and still have no mechanical filtration I don't see why the flow increase would help with this situation.

stocking and feeding info?

Katze · Apr 17, 2025

I know it's very messy but this is what I have...
The overflow cannot be seen from this picture, but it should be on the back panel where the gyre is
I'd figure that increased flow would keep the mess suspended, and would have more chance to get into the sump and then the skimmer could filter it out

*I also have a scopas in addition to what the picture shows
*and the skimmer had been changed 3 weeks ago
basically everything else is the same

I feed about this much, nothing usually falls to the bottom, I'm very patient with the fishies

Mr. Mojo Rising · Apr 17, 2025

I've never thought of a skimmer as a means to remove detritus. I suppose it might, but not in any effective way since the intake valve is so small.

If you have an overflow, are you able to add a sock at the end of the pipe in the sump? I DIY'd a way to do that in my sump.

With only one gyre in a such a big tank, I can see how you would have some dead flow spots. Adding another gyre on the opposite will definitely increase the flow and keep detritus suspended. I have 2 gyres in my 40 breeder.

Katze · Apr 17, 2025

Mr. Mojo Rising said:
I've never thought of a skimmer as a means to remove detritus. I suppose it might, but not in any effective way since the intake valve is so small.

If you have an overflow, are you able to add a sock at the end of the pipe in the sump? I DIY'd a way to do that in my sump.

With only one gyre in a such a big tank, I can see how you would have some dead flow spots. Adding another gyre on the opposite will definitely increase the flow and keep detritus suspended. I have 2 gyres in my 40 breeder.

Now that you mention DIY... I had ordered quite a few of these plastic frag crates, maybe I could somehow create a stand for socks, but then it'd probably fit only one of them, as I cannot really direct the flow to a second sock not even with glass due to the fact that silicone glue does not stick well underwater.
Also, I may have a spare tunze 6025 AC wavemaker somewhere from my last tank, I can add that too but it is not a powerful machine