Filter my setup...46 bowfront

[pottsburg]

I recently bought a 46 gallon bowfront that I will be turning into a seahorse tank. I've got a few things to cover....

I've been planning on building a sump with bioballs or cheato or livesand....which is the best way? At my LFS they've got bioballs just sitting in the water, not in a trickle system like I've seen everywhere else....how come? I've thought about a HOB filter but adding the sump adds more water and makes it easier to keep the tank stable, plus it hide everything else.

The setup came with a single 96watt PC, so I bought a 2x65wattpc from a friend to be in there so I can grow softies and whatever. The aquarium has a glass top on it, should I take it off? Will it absorb light? Greenhouse affect the tank?

Can I keep pipefish with the seahorses? If not it's fine, but I've read both good and bad things.

It came with a skimmer that I've seen on tanks at my LFS and they said it works great....It's got smoked glass with red fittings. I don't know anything about skimmers but I've read too much skimmage is bad for SH tanks, so I guess if it's not great, it's better than being too good?

Should I get a UV sterilizer? I've heard yes and I've heard the aren't needed.

First post here, I look forward to you guys (and gals) helping me out. Thanks ahead of time!

 

[pottsburg]

Oh, and I heard that cheato is a p-i-t-a because it grows like mad and needs to be trimmed nearly every week....plus that's just one more light to tack onto the bill.

I'm going to have a hair over 5wpg so I figure I can grow basically whatever can go with a SH, you don't think there will be any heating issues with the water, do you?

One last thing, Should I have water diverters (one low, one high) in the sump to help keep the bubbles out?

I was figuring about 300gph turnover in the sump, is this too much? I plan on having spraybars for the return, but is it better to have something slower for the filtration to have more contact time?

 

[cmsargent]

Sounds like you've off too a good start.

I'd avoid the bioballs, they end up being a nitrate factory. The cheato with live rock is what I'd put in the sump.

I'd take the glass top off. It'll likely end up causing heat issues and hinder gas exchange for the tank. Not to mention it'll get covered with salt creep so you'll have to clean it all the time to prevent it from blocking the light.

As for seahorses and pipefish. It's generally not a good idea. Pipefish are almost entirely wild caught and as such carry all kinds of bacteria and parasites. Often the pipefish will appear perfectly healthy as they've built up a resistance to these bugs. But once you add them in with the seahorses (which should be captive bred) you're introducing the seahorses to all those diseases. The seahorses won't have any resistance and they'll likely come down with some type of disease. It's not worth the risk IMHO. You've likely seen where others have kept these together but either they just got really lucky or they planned carefully, QT and treated the fish, and have a fully stocked medicine cabniet and knowhow to treat the problems that show up.

As for skimmer. The old tale was that skimmers would cause gasbubble disease in seahorses. Most people don't really believe that's the case anymore. And if the skimmers in the sump and you use baffels to keep down the bubbles it shouldn't be a problem in any case.

As long as you have spraybars and/or other devises to keep the return difused you should be ok. Just make sure some areas of the tank have lower flow so the seahorses have some quiet areas to hitch.

 

[pottsburg]

OKay thanks a ton. I'm wondering how much liverock I'll need in my sump for a 46gal with a good bit of liverock. Do I just need to make sure that all in all, tank plus sump, that I have 1.5lbs per gallon? I heard that's the rule of thumb.

I'm debating replacing a baffle to have my skimmer at the front of my sump, or just put the protein skimmer by the return pump. I read that the skimmer will eat up the beneficial stuff that the liverock puts out and kind of defeats the purpose.

Would you guys put the skimmer at the front chamber, or leave it by the return pump and only run it for a few hours every other day?

 

[vipjd39]

Linky removed, please feel free to share your experience on Reef Central (if you have any), however linking to another board is not permitted.

 

[cmsargent]

As for the skimmer...it's up to you. I'd but it 1st so you've not skimming out all the microscopic pod larvea and such. I don't run a skimmer on my tanks at all. I try to encourage pod growth and all that stuff the skimmer pulls out is pod food as far as I'm concerend. My water isn't crystal clear like you see in some reef tanks. But I keep a variety of nonphotosynthetic animals and I want all those tiny pods and micralgeas as food for them. My tank is heavily planted which helps to keep the nitates in control.

Same with live rock. There is no magic number, different amounts work for different tank types. I have maybe 30 lbs in my 29 gallon with another couple of lbs of rubble in my fuge. But again the heavy planting adds some nutrient export in place of the rock.

With a seahorse tank you want to give them some room to swim so don't compleatly fill up the tank with rock but other than that you can't really have too much. 1lb per gallon is the number I hear thrown around the most. But again it all depend on how you set up, what you're keeping, how high your bioload is, etc.

 

[pottsburg]

So sargent, you just have liverock in your sump? It seems wierd to me that I dont need anything but live rock to filter it out. That and a filter sock on the hose going from the tank.

 

[TamiW]

its called the berlin method and is very common.

all my tanks but one are running this way right now. as long as the bioload isn't that high, its a fantastic way to keep saltwater because it handles nitrAte processing better than other types of filters.

 

[cmsargent]

Yes just live rock, sand, and macroalgeas. It's not really even a sump just a hang on back refugium. No skimmers and no external filters at all (not even a filter sock). I do have a powerfilter that I run every once in a great while (it's been at least 2 months since I've used it last). I'll sometimes use the power filter for a couple of days if I want to run some charcoal, for example after I've fragged one of my leathers.

I'm think this type of set-up doesn't get enough credit. It's not for every reef type but it works well for fish only and soft coral reefs or in a seahorse tank. I feed the tank heavily; 2 cubes of mysis a day, twice a day feedings of phytoplankton, cyclopeze, oyster eggs, rotifers, and reef chili (for the gorgonians and coco worm) and another 2 cubes everyother day for the sun coral. My nitates are usually about 15-20 and the highest they're ever been is 30. I do about a 10% water change every other week.

I don't run a skimmer because I'm trying to encourage a large pod population and I also want the nutrients to keep my macroalgaes growing. I also like to keep things simpe (and less expensive) so I'm not much for running out and buying lots of fancy equiptment. I like the more natural method of replicating the food chain and I like all the diversity in my tank, it's crawling with all types of pods, worms, sponges, etc.

Setting up a tank this way takes a bit more patience. You have to start slowly and gradually increase the amount you feed and your bioload. This allows time for the bacteria, pod, and worm populations to grow in enough to handle your bioload. Its not for everyone or every reef type but I think it's the best way to set up a seahorse tank.

 

[pledosophy]

Skimmers are great in sumps. I would put it right after the inlet to the sump, before the rock/refugium part, let th fuge drain into the return pump.

Protein skimmers won't compete with the liverock but aid it in filtration. They are very good at removing DOC's and reducing nitrates which seems to be a common problem in horse tanks.

I've gone all natural (no filter at all) all the way to the high tech gear with cannisters, UV's Skimmers, Ca reactors, refugiums, sumps. phosphate reactors, nitrate reactors, etc, etc, etc. Each has there place IME. All can be great if used properly. YOu just have to understand what the function of each is and then find some function for every element in your system.

My seahorse tanks are setup so they could be all natural, and then I add filters, I'm just paranoid and kinda into gadgets. I do think UV's are priceless and IMO you really need a cannister before the UV JMO. My new favorite piece of gadgetry is the Atuo RODI top off, makes life easy.

Many different setups can and do work, there is really no one right way IMO. Just my opinion though.

The berlin method is a great and time proven method for keeping tanks. IIRC it also involves a higher flow rate to keep detritus in suspension, but I could be wrong on that. It's not one of my preferred methods so I read and then didn't retain as much as I should of.

Anything over 1 lbs of lr per gallon is pretty good but it is more dependent on the amount of surface area and porusness of the rock. A lbs per gallon is a balance of such and is where the rule came from.

Chaetomorpha is not really that hard to trim if in a sump, you wouldn't put it in the display anyways. YOu just pull some off. The more nuissance fast growing macro is caulphera, particularly green grape caulphera.

Seagrass is probably out of the question ofr your system but if you like the look try prolifera. It is a fast grower but so easy to pruin if you stay up on it, will take you less then 3 minutes a week.

Enough blabbing on.

Good Luck, HTH