Critique my set up

[Chago09]

OK I am still planning a reef tank. I want to use my 50 gallon which has a footprint of 30" by 18". I do not want to drill it. I know all the benefits of a sump, my 150 gallon FOWLR has a sump although I want to keep this one in my room and want it to be very quite. I was planning on doing the following. Having a glass top on it and not having any exterior machines except a small hole in the back for my protein skimmer. I will have a koralia 4 and a aqua clear 70 power head with 100lbs of live rock. The koralia is 1200gph and the AC 70 is 400gph. Thats 32x turnover and 2lbs per gallon. This tank should work perfectly fine am I correct????

I have a few concerns

1.) Since there won't be a skimming box what will remove all that white gunk on top of the surface??? will the skimmer be able to remove that???

2.) What will give my tank the gas exchange??? will the skimmer alone be able to handle that too???

3.) My LPS owner told me my tank can't work without some kind of exterior filter like a sump, HOB or canister... any truth in this???

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

I would wait until you have everything set up before buying a large powerhead. Add something like a MaxiJet 1200 and see how you like it before adding something that large in a small tank. Also, keep the glass top off. You're going to be hard pressed for heat issues and gas exchange as it is. You won't want to make it harder on yourself.

1) You can buy attachments to equipment that will skim the surface of the water or you can filter it out manually

2) Not normally. Pointing a powerhead to aggitate the surface of the water usually does the trick

3) To an extent it's true, but mainly not. It would be more beneficial to have some form of mechanical filtration, but not critical. When designing a tank like this, livestock choice is just as important as a good maintenance schedule.

 

[Chago09]

won't fish all jump out ????? don't u get salt creep like nuts??? with no hood

 

[55semireef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10182522#post10182522 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chago09
won't fish all jump out ????? don't u get salt creep like nuts??? with no hood

I don't have any covering at all and my tank has a good amount of flow and I don't get much saltcreep. I still get saltcreep like any other but its not bad. Getting rid of the hood allows more gas exchange to happen.

 

[Chago09]

Ok so would my set up be better if I ran the following. Rena XP3 canister with some sponge for mechanical although it will be rinsed daily. 1.5- 2 lbs per gallon of live rock and a koralia 4. I already own the koralia from a previous tank so I want to use it. This would be enough flow right, plus the canister would aggitate the surface for gas exchange.

I said earlier that my LPS owner told me I must have some sort of external filter, he said not for mechanical but for biological. He says that live rock alone can't be enough biofilter for a fully stocked reef tank. Is this true???? I wouldn't know because my 150 gallon FOWLR only has a few fish currently and is running solely on 150 lbs of live rock.

 

[kysard1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10193046#post10193046 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chago09


I said earlier that my LPS owner told me I must have some sort of external filter, he said not for mechanical but for biological. He says that live rock alone can't be enough biofilter for a fully stocked reef tank. Is this true???? .

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