Do I need another filter????

[salt newbie01]

Let me start by saying that one day I will convert to a sump w/ refugium but it may be a 6 months or so. So in the meantime...I had an emp 400, penguin 330, magnum 350 cannister, sea clown skimmer and now seio 820 for filtration and water movement. This morning I found my penguin 330 had finally bit the dust. It is approx 5 years old so I think I got my moneys worth. My question is... Do I need another filter? Or maybe another power head for movement?

I have 3 inches or so of a sand bed and approx 40 lbs of LR. I will be getting more LR but it may be a month or so. I have a fairly small bio load with onlyfew small fish - lawnmower blennie, 2 smal (1-1 1/2 inch) fasle percs, ranford goby and a bar goby.

 

[Runner]

The Emperor 400 is a moderately sized bio-wheel power filter, right? Sounds like between that and the Magnum 350 and the Seio 820, you'll have enough movement. I use a Seio 820 and sump with a Mag 12 return pump for water movement in my 75G tank. Replacing my old Eheim 2217 cannister filter with the Seio made a world of difference...

I have heard you could have troubles with nitrates and bio-media like the kind that goes in a cannister filter or bio-wheel, but I ran my 30G tank for 2 years with a cannister filter loaded with bio-media and my nitrates were always less than 10ppm. Of course, I had a 4" active deep sand bed to denitrify and be a nutrient sink. At the start, I wanted the extra filtration power the cannister filter offered in the event a big snail or fish died. However, the "Berlin method" uses only live rock, water movement, and a really good skimmer to go for low nitrates. Until you have corals, I wouldn't worry so much about nitrates so long as you do regular water changes. Personally, I have found macro algae in my sump does the best job for me. I am glad you plan to go that route. It makes life a lot easier when you have a sump.

 

[skwirl]

hey runner what kind of music does your band do?

 

[Runner]

Heh. Contemporary Christian, Christian Rock, and Gospel. I help with the Praise Band at church. I am the "apprentice" guitar. It's pretty strange. The last band I was in almost 20 years ago played some pretty awful rock/metal hybrid stuff we made up on our own. We all have some things in our past we'd rather forget...

 

[skwirl]

lol i know i do
you might know my sisters adopted mother's band "The McKameys"

 

[Runner]

Heh. Thread hijack in progress...

Sorry, had not heard of them. I looked them up on the internet, though. I am very guilty of playing music without bothering to find out who wrote it or performs it -- even if the credit is always on the sheet music I get.

 

[skwirl]

oops... we did kinda hijack this thread...

sorry salt... i wish you didnt live sofar away

 

[salt newbie01]

No problem guys. I got my answer in the first response. Yeh I would like to be a little closer.