Talk to me about filtration, protein skimming, the importance of them, and why and what you use?

[Jeremy Lain]

Hello,

Talk to me about the filtration, protein skimming, the importance of them, and why and what you use?

I think it would be cool if some people posted some pictures of their filtration and protein skimming methods, some videos, links, and talk about why and what you use what you use for your reef tank.

I will start.


Here is a picture of my reef tank. It is a 20 Gallon Reef Tank.

For me and my reef tank I have chose to use a fluval 406 canister filter, I chose this for the biological filtration.

I have a Coralife 65 Gallon protein skimmer, I chose this to help get the nitrates out of the water.

This is my filter and protein skimmer that I am using, What are yours and why are you using them?

 

[EmdeReef]

Clarisea 5000 roller mat, refugium, GAC reactor, protein skimmer, oxydators

Make sure to keep your your canister filter clean. They can quickly turn to detritus traps and cause issues.

 

[Jeremy Lain]

Clarisea 5000 roller mat, refugium, GAC reactor, protein skimmer, oxydators

Make sure to keep your your canister filter clean. They can quickly turn to detritus traps and cause issues.

Cool stuff on your reef tank. I recently learned that the hard way, I wasn't using a protein skimmer. I guess I just assumed that my canister filter would catch all the bad stuff in the water and my tank got a lot of nitrates and I think the high nitrates killed some of my fish.

Now I will be keeping a protein skimmer on my reef tank running at all times. With in a couple of days my protein skimmer brought down the nitrates to a acceptable parameter and hopefully they will continue to go lower.

Losing my fish was not enjoyable.

 

[ca1ore]

Mostly DiY stuff. Large sump with refugium, waterfall ATS, RDSB, modified MTC HSA3000 skimmer, GAC, GFO and polyfilters. No purpose mechanical. Pictures in my build thread on the monster page - Simons450.

 

[biecacka]

I use a Bubbl King double cone200 skimmer and an ATS and those two pretty much keep up with my filtration needs.


Corey

 

[BeejReef]

A big hunk of chaetomorpha that I remove, rinse in WC water, and replace every week or two and a bag of carbon. It's basically been my mechanical and biological filtration for these first months. Probably will have to step it up when I stock heavier with fish. For the moment though, I can zero N & P with it if I choose to.

 

[Jeremy Lain]

I use a Bubbl King double cone200 skimmer and an ATS and those two pretty much keep up with my filtration needs.


Corey

I think this is a good Idea maybe, I like the idea that you can target where you have your algae grow if it happens, I would not use the Algae Turf Scrubber by itself just in case the Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates, and Phosphates are being put in the tank faster than the algae process can happen, or I think that those things can reach high parameters in your tank and possibly you might have livestock loss. I am still learning about the things listed above, and algae growing, but I know that I did have some fish loss because I think was to high of nitrate parameters, because I assumed that my canister filter would just pull the bad stuff out of the water. I am learning that if you are not doing water changes to keep the parameters at zero then you need to have some form of filtration to do this for you like a skimmer. In my experience I have learned you should never assume that a filter alone is pulling out all the bad stuff in the water, because it has to go somewhere, if not I think it is just sitting in your tank causing thinks to get sick.

 

[Jeremy Lain]

I think this is a good Idea maybe, I like the idea that you can target where you have your algae grow if it happens, I would not use the Algae Turf Scrubber by itself just in case the Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates, and Phosphates are being put in the tank faster than the algae process can happen, or I think that those things can reach high parameters in your tank and possibly you might have livestock loss. I am still learning about the things listed above, and algae growing, but I know that I did have some fish loss because I think was to high of nitrate parameters, because I assumed that my canister filter would just pull the bad stuff out of the water. I am learning that if you are not doing water changes to keep the parameters at zero then you need to have some form of filtration to do this for you like a skimmer. In my experience I have learned you should never assume that a filter alone is pulling out all the bad stuff in the water, because it has to go somewhere, if not I think it is just sitting in your tank causing thinks to get sick.

Does someone know if in a sump area, if the lighting could stay on 24/7 on the Algae Turf Scrubber so that the algae is sure to grow in that area if it did grow somewhere? What I am trying to ask is does it require lighting to target the growth of algae on the Algae Turf Scrubber, and if so does it need to be on 24/7 or longer than the display tank lighting is on so it will grow in that area?

 

[Mariette]

Clarisea 5000 roller mat, refugium, GAC reactor, protein skimmer, oxydators

Make sure to keep your your canister filter clean. They can quickly turn to detritus traps and cause issues.

I’ve been running a lightly stocked fish only 55g for 2 yrs w just a canister filter. Cleaned it twice. Not something I’d recommend. Just didn’t know better. But no issues

 

[ReefGeezer]

Now that the tank is nearing maturity, I use a slightly oversized skimmer and rock. I think the skimmer keeps dissolved organics below the threshold where they cause problems but leaves enough to support the corals and critters. The rock provides enough substrate for denitrification. The critters growing on/between/under the rock help out too.

 

[Jeremy Lain]

I’ve been running a lightly stocked fish only 55g for 2 yrs w just a canister filter. Cleaned it twice. Not something I’d recommend. Just didn’t know better. But no issues

I think it is possible to do this, if you are testing and Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, and, Phosphate parameters are staying at zero, and doing water changes if needed. I have been able to keep Aayu - my clownfish alive for two months with the same amounts of feeding everyday, but I did have some problems with algae growing on the glass. I didn't have problems with livestock loss until I started adding more fish, and trying to feed my anemones more food to see if they would grow more. I will note that I was not doing water changes either because I thought my canister filter would take all the bad stuff out of the water, I think this is what caused algae to grow and livestock loss. When I added the new fish and more food to try to get the anemones in my reef tank to grow more my nitrate parameters went higher and I think I lost fish because of it. I do not recommend this, I was testing regularly to see if my levels where staying the same then I stopped testing because I thought the filter was getting all the bad stuff out of the water. I thought the filter was working good and when I added the new fish and anemone food the levels started going higher and I think I lost fish because of it.

So what I have learned from this experience is that I think it is best to test water parameters, for me I am going to test weekly, I am going to keep a protein skimmer on my reef tank because I don't want accidental Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, and Phosphates in my water parameters to get high, and I will do water changes if for some reason the filter and protein skimmer equipment are not keeping up with taking these things out of the water fast enough (hopefully this never happens because of testing and never overfeeding more then the test results show the parameters are rising to high) if this happens I think I will need to do regular water changes and not leave things floating in the water and possibly find out a better way of filtering and maybe getting a better protein skimmer, or it just might not be the right size tank if I can't keep my livestock properly fed. Still learning, but I think thats what I have learned from this.

I hope to not have any more livestock loss because of this.

 

[Mariette]

I think it is possible to do this, if you are testing and Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, and, Phosphate parameters are staying at zero, and doing water changes if needed. I have been able to keep Aayu - my clownfish alive for two months with the same amounts of feeding everyday, but I did have some problems with algae growing on the glass. I didn't have problems with livestock loss until I started adding more fish, and trying to feed my anemones more food to see if they would grow more. I will note that I was not doing water changes either because I thought my canister filter would take all the bad stuff out of the water, I think this is what caused algae to grow and livestock loss. When I added the new fish and more food to try to get the anemones in my reef tank to grow more my nitrate parameters went higher and I think I lost fish because of it. I do not recommend this, I was testing regularly to see if my levels where staying the same then I stopped testing because I thought the filter was getting all the bad stuff out of the water. I thought the filter was working good and when I added the new fish and anemone food the levels started going higher and I think I lost fish because of it.

So what I have learned from this experience is that I think it is best to test water parameters, for me I am going to test weekly, I am going to keep a protein skimmer on my reef tank because I don't want accidental Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, and Phosphates in my water parameters to get high, and I will do water changes if for some reason the filter and protein skimmer equipment are not keeping up with taking these things out of the water fast enough (hopefully this never happens because of testing and never overfeeding more then the test results show the parameters are rising to high) if this happens I think I will need to do regular water changes and not leave things floating in the water and possibly find out a better way of filtering and maybe getting a better protein skimmer, or it just might not be the right size tank if I can't keep my livestock properly fed. Still learning, but I think thats what I have learned from this.

I hope to not have any more livestock loss because of this.

Yikes. I started off on lfs info. Which was: just like a freshwater. Easy peazy. Didn’t test parameters at all. Ever. Weekly water changes of about 15%. Syphoned 1/3 substrate per wc. Had a 9 fish, all under 4 inches long plus 2 inverts. Never issues w algae. Or ammonia, nitrates, nitrites... tank crashed 3 times from disease though. Started off w no qt. Learned. Then did a 2 week qt. Learned again. Then I cross contaminated qt w Dt that led to 3td crash. Then I found this place and am now upgrading to a 110 g proper setup w corals. Gotta love R2R. I don’t know how I managed to stumble around in the dark like that for 2 yrs!!!

 

[Thomashtom]

Why:?

 

[biecacka]

You can eventually build up to running your ATS 24/7. But 16-18 hours a day is probably more than enough. Each setup is different though. I have a friend who took his skimmer offline and only runs a fuge with chaeto in it on his 110 gallon tank with no issues at all.


Corey