5 or 20 gallon frag/coral tank filteration

[aiq25]

So my main DT tank has completely crashed. It's my fault, I didn't keep up with the maintenance and now there is algae everywhere and I can't get it under control. I'm also relatively new to reef tanks, I had this tank for a little less than a year. I had a bunch of corals that were doing great but now a lot of them has died. I have a zoa and a frogspawn left in the DT tank. I should mention my lights also went bad. I had a DIY LED setup, which worked great but I messed up and didn't properly seal the electronics from the water/salt.

So long story short I would like to move the two remaining corals I have to a 5 gallon I have or a 20 gallon tall. I'm thinking the 20 gallon work better. I have a spare LED fixture I could use, along with a T5 fixture. The light might be too much for a 5 gallon tank.

Reading some forum threads and some other sites it looks like I don't need a skimmer if I don't have much livestock and it also depends on the type of coral I'm keeping. So would I need a skimmer/sump for zoa's and a frogspawn coral? I might be adding few more zoa's from a cousins tank in this tank if it works out.

As for my DT tank I would like to move the corals out and in a few months start over. I'm going to be setting up a 75 gallon (might be larger, not sure yet). So far *knock on wood* I haven't lost any fish. I just want to get the corals out there because I have lost a lot of corals and I don't want to loose these two I have left.

Thank You.

 

[aiq25]

I should mention I'm thinking of doing on a HOB filter. Would this work? If I go with the gallon I'm thinking a AC 70 or 110. If I go with the 5 gallon I'm not sure what I want to use.

 

[organism]

I'd go with the 20 tall since at least you have more water volume for stability. The thing is you need to find out where that algae came from in your display. Were you overfeeding your fish, or feeding your corals at all? Are you using an RO/DI unit? You don't wanna be in the same spot a few months from now...

A HOB filter should work but might not be ideal, it really depends.

 

[aiq25]

I have a feeling my algae problems are from a combination of bad water (I use DI water) and my LED's. The LED's I have worked great but after I had to rebuild the LED fixture (had some water/salt damage) they don't seem to be working as well. And I currently have two HOB filters although using these filters and my older LED fixture I was able to grow some corals and didn't have much algae problems. I should mention the LED's I'm using are 10W multichip LED's from eBay. I'm going to replace those with CREE ones for the new build.

For my new tank build I'm going to use RODI water from the start and going to have have a sump. I might not start with a skimmer from the start but do plan on adding one and the sump design will include a place for the skimmer.