wondering if my filtration is adequate

[James Matthews]

I have as 100 gallon corner tank I believe they are called 1/4 cylinders, but I have a 525 gph 4 stage canister filter, I didnt feel like this was doing enough so I built a sump with a 2 stage trickle tower, i have a 2 inch pvc syphon overflow going through 2 stage filter floss then trickle down to about 15 lbs of lava rock, from there it goes into my sump where I have a refugium set up with chaeto and a 75 led chaeto grow light, then returned by a 1056 gph submersible pump I dont know the actual gph its lifting about 5ft through 1inch pvc, just wondering if this will be adequate or not enough it's my first salt water tank?

 

[James Matthews]

75 watt grow light

 

[Hemmdog]

Don’t use lava rocks in sw. They are full of heavy metals and contaminants by nature. I would look at modern sump designs, trickle filters and canister filters don’t work great for reef tanks especially.

 

[Waters]

I guess my first question is what type of filtration are you trying to add.......mechanical, chemical, or biological? The canister should take care of any mechanical filtration. Ideally the live rock in your tank should take care of the biological. I agree on removing the lava rock. The sump and canister both probably aren't needed....I personally would remove the canister and just use the sump (assuming you aren't using the canister for biological filtration).

 

[WVNed]

A skimmer and a filter sock and you dont really need the filter sock.

 

[motortrendz]

I'd remove the lava rock like stated above any replace it with live rock rubble form your LFS or BRS sells nice dry rock. I'd also add a skimmer to help remove particulates from the water column.

 

[Redfoxtang]

+1 on removing lava rock. Replace with bioballs instead for a cheaper solution! Or you could use marine pure plates or balls which you can order from BRS or maybe even your local LFS.