Someone Gave Me A Tank But I Need Help!!!

[NY_Caveman]

So here's my first questions. My sisters boyfriend who sets up and maintains aquariums for a living says a regular tank and canister filter is best but the guy who got me into hobby and most people I see on here have similar setup to mine. Which is the better option and why? Also, is it safe to put tank in a basement? I could build larger setup, add dedicated breaker, and more easily mount lighting, plumbing, etc if so. Basement is all concrete, not finished, does not flood and is not extremely humid or smelly like some. TIA

Canister filters, which i usually think of mostly as mechanical filtration, need to be kept very clean for marine tanks. You can have media like carbon in them for chemical filtration, but this will need to be changed out every 2-3 weeks. Generally, there is not enough room in a canister to consider biological filtration. Flow through this type of system is also suspect and will likely become considerable less between maintenance.

If your sister's friend maintains them for others, perhaps it is just an easy way to go in and clean one piece of contained equipment for those clients that do none of their own maintenance. For one's own tank, it is easy to become lax in maintenance which would be a killer with this type of filtration. Maintenance on a canister filter is annoying. You have to have a way to cleanly remove it from the system without getting saltwater everywhere, then opening it is always a foul, smelly, dirty mess. Everything then must be cleaned completely, media replaced, then replumbed to the system. Even if you do all of this, you may find the maintenance needs to be done very frequently to keep the flow at a usable rate.

I would say if you run a canister filter, you still need some of the regular stuff as well like skimmer, reactors, refugium, etc. Not sure the canister does much more than those to be worth it really.

 

[SilverCityReef]

Canister filters, which i usually think of mostly as mechanical filtration, need to be kept very clean for marine tanks. You can have media like carbon in them for chemical filtration, but this will need to be changed out every 2-3 weeks. Generally, there is not enough room in a canister to consider biological filtration. Flow through this type of system is also suspect and will likely become considerable less between maintenance.

If your sister's friend maintains them for others, perhaps it is just an easy way to go in and clean one piece of contained equipment for those clients that do none of their own maintenance. For one's own tank, it is easy to become lax in maintenance which would be a killer with this type of filtration. Maintenance on a canister filter is annoying. You have to have a way to cleanly remove it from the system without getting saltwater everywhere, then opening it is always a foul, smelly, dirty mess. Everything then must be cleaned completely, media replaced, then replumbed to the system. Even if you do all of this, you may find the maintenance needs to be done very frequently to keep the flow at a usable rate.

I would say if you run a canister filter, you still need some of the regular stuff as well like skimmer, reactors, refugium, etc. Not sure the canister does much more than those to be worth it really.

That makes sense and probably is the case. I would rather utilize the setup that I have the way the guy who gave it to me showed me, which is natural filtration. I started another post with what I think I need but here's what I am looking at:

-Sicce Syncra 3.5 (Enough Circulation? Says 581gph with 7ft rating for plumbing restriction)
-Hydor Theo 400W Heater
-AquaticLife Reno 36" RGBW LED Light (Experiences?)
-50Lbs Live Rock/Dry Rock (opinions?)
-40lbs Live Sand (Type?)

Additionally, future purchases:

-Tunze NanoStream 6040 (2)
-Hydor Theo 400W Heater (Backup)

 

[NY_Caveman]

That makes sense and probably is the case. I would rather utilize the setup that I have the way the guy who gave it to me showed me, which is natural filtration. I started another post with what I think I need but here's what I am looking at:

-Sicce Syncra 3.5 (Enough Circulation? Says 581gph with 7ft rating for plumbing restriction)
-Hydor Theo 400W Heater
-AquaticLife Reno 36" RGBW LED Light (Experiences?)
-50Lbs Live Rock/Dry Rock (opinions?)
-40lbs Live Sand (Type?)

Additionally, future purchases:

-Tunze NanoStream 6040 (2)
-Hydor Theo 400W Heater (Backup)

Does the tank have a sump? What kind of filtration did you get with it? I had a standard 55 gallon years ago without a sump and i loved it despite being quite narrow.

For the rock I am a big proponent of using live rock. You may get a few pests, but it is easier to remove them in most cases than to reproduce the biodiversity of real ocean live rock. That gives you a huge head start over dry rock. Just my opinion of course.

 

[SilverCityReef]

Does the tank have a sump? What kind of filtration did you get with it? I had a standard 55 gallon years ago without a sump and i loved it despite being quite narrow.

For the rock I am a big proponent of using live rock. You may get a few pests, but it is easier to remove them in most cases than to reproduce the biodiversity of real ocean live rock. That gives you a huge head start over dry rock. Just my opinion of course.

I was going to use my old 20g as my sump, had used a plastic tote originally. The return pump I was given was a Rio 2500 but after sitting in water not running for 3 years, I'm calling it trash. The power head(?) I was given was a Maxi-Jet 900. The tank is drilled for plumbing so I assume it has to have sump.

 

[SilverCityReef]

Does the tank have a sump? What kind of filtration did you get with it? I had a standard 55 gallon years ago without a sump and i loved it despite being quite narrow.

For the rock I am a big proponent of using live rock. You may get a few pests, but it is easier to remove them in most cases than to reproduce the biodiversity of real ocean live rock. That gives you a huge head start over dry rock. Just my opinion of course.