Anyone using just LR, LS, PH's, and skimmer for filtration?

Kaos

"Lurker"
I just went to a guys house yesterday from work and checked out his 55 gal. reef. All he had for filtration was LR, LS, a couple of PH's (not sure what size but they were penguins), and a CPR BakPak skimmer. His tank was very nice w/ rediculous growth of coral and coraline. He said that he only topped it off w/ spring water from Wallyworld. His tank has been setup for awhile but as far as I know it has always been that way.

Seeing his tank has me curious if I should drop my filter and just go w/ the LR, Remora, and 2 MJ 1200's I have. And, I'm curious to know if anyone else is using a similar setup. TIA.
 
You can easily run a tank with just live rock, live sand, powerheads, and a skimmer. I have an entire store to prove it. :)

But, when looking at other's tanks and the ease of their aquariums and husbandry, you must consider the inhabitants. Was his tank full of softies? A softy tank will be much more forgiving than a stony tank. Can he use spring water because he has inhabitants that are easy to keep and tolerant of nutrients? Does he have rediculous coralline growth because he is rediculously lucky, or because he waits a rediculously long time to scrape it off? These are just some questions to ponder before you throw your tank in neutral and coast down easy street. :)

Amphiprion, I have to learn to stop following you around. :)
 
I do all the above, except I have no Penguins, nor would I want one: I'm convinced any filter anywhere is nitrate waiting to happen. At very best I drop a tray under the waterfall in the sump and toss a filter pad in for 24 hours when the particulates get obnoxious, but that's about twice in the last 6 months. I do have blue filter medium rubberbanded around my Urchin skimmer intake, but that's to keep stuff from clogging the intake, and I change it weekly. I have some of the world's largest bristleworms, which break down the big detritus into coral food. I run lps, sps, fish, and a lot of inverts, lot of coralline...bit of bubble algae, lot of sponges. I get pretty good growth in the corals. Plenty of spionid worms. Overall, it's not pristine, but it grows. Params are 0 nitrate, 0 ammonia, 1.025 sal, cal 420, alk 8.3, a little iodine, no idoate, mg. 1300, no free phosphate @ 80.3 degrees, on ro/di water.
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i think you will find that the majority of folks use live rock, good current and skimming -some use sand- as the primary filtration. i'm really not sure what else there is...

i know some people use bio balls and a trickle type filters, but afaik -on this board at least- they are by far the minority. lots of reefers also use refugiums to remove nutrients via algae export. some use various media like carbon, phos remover, but mostly on a temp basis. some are using the zeovit, miracle mud, ect... but mostly i think you will find good skimming, ample flow, and lr/ls is the basis.
 
Well, I think I will remove the foam from my AC 110 and just use it for carbon and if I need to add Phosorb or something. I had thought of turning it into a small fuge (w/ Chaeto.) but I think it will be too small to make a difference on a 55 gal. (if anyone thinks otherwise....post). Thanks for the help, and maybe this will get rid of the last of my trates.

Sk8r: Nice tank. What are you doing (if anything) to get coraline like that? I just got a piece of rock from a friend thats covered in the stuff and really want it to take off in my tank. Thanks.
 
I think the 110 is the biggest AC, and that's what I used for a temporary fuge.
It was better than none.
LR rubble and chaeto in the large chamber, and a carbon pack in the small(intake) chamber.
That coraline rock should seed your other rock.
 
Is there any other way.....That is what I was told from the beg.....LR is your bio filter..no need for a plastic one:D I have about 72lbs of lr in a 40g..plenty!
 
I got desperate for a fuge, and ended up dumping cheato and lr under the downflow in my number 1 sump chamber, with a light. It's turbulent as a waterfall splashpool, but it breeds pods somehow: the mandarin is busy upstairs all day long.
 
Re: Anyone using just LR, LS, PH's, and skimmer for filtration?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7518248#post7518248 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kaos
I just went to a guys house yesterday from work and checked out his 55 gal. reef. All he had for filtration was LR, LS, a couple of PH's (not sure what size but they were penguins), and a CPR BakPak skimmer. His tank was very nice w/ rediculous growth of coral and coraline. He said that he only topped it off w/ spring water from Wallyworld. His tank has been setup for awhile but as far as I know it has always been that way.

Seeing his tank has me curious if I should drop my filter and just go w/ the LR, Remora, and 2 MJ 1200's I have. And, I'm curious to know if anyone else is using a similar setup. TIA.

I just kind of figured that type of system was standard now. That's all I have plus some cheato.
 
Thanks for the help guys. My area LFS are still in the stone age of reef keeping. Here, most people still use mechanical filtration. I took the sponge out of the AC 110 this morning and I think I am going to convert it into a fuge. It was already starting to be one, I found a pod on the sponge when I took it out. I bought some kalk today and I think I am going to start to slow drip that tonight (if anyone has any suggestions, experience on this I'm open). Later on I am going to test my water to see if the lack of sponge has made any difference yet (probably not but I'm curious and it's about time to test the water anyway).
 
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