Filtration for a 28G

bassman57

New member
I have a 28 Gallon tank running with just a little bit of live rock and a canister filter. I am going to get a few fish for it now (Some kind of blenny, some kind of small clownfish, and a few Blue/Green Reef Chomis). I have been told that canister filters are not good for saltwater tanks.

What would you recomend for filtration for this tank?
 
If you are strictly FOWLR and and do your water changes, I see nothing wrong with canister filters. You just have to monitor your nitrate levels.
 
I just setup a 29g tank. For filtration, I have a 3-4" sandbed of oolitic aragonite sand and 30lbs of marshall island liverock. I don't think a saltwater tank should be without a decent protein skimmer. I am using a Remora hang-on skimmer for protein skimming...also, flow is important to avoid dead spots in the tank where algaes can and will build up, I am using three Maxijet 1200's for circulation.

Water changes to remove dissolved organic carbons and wastes secondary to food and fish, along with using purified RODI water and occasionally running carbon and/or phosphate removers. In addition to all of this, I have a nice size clump of chaetomorpha algae from a friend to uptake phosphates.

Nanook
 
If I decide to keep using the canister filter, what type of media should I put in it? Carbon, Biomedia, Foam Filters?
 
If you have a decent amount of rock and sand, it should take care of your biological load, but if you get too heavy of a bioload and not enough surface area for the bacteria to colonize then you may need biomedia. Just go slow with the fish additions. You can run foam to take out the particulates but you need to keep it cleaned out, and carbon once in a while to polish the water. You need to keep the surface water moving briskly as saltwater doesn't carry as much oxygen. I would highly recommend a protien skimmer for organic removal as well as adding O2 to the water.
 
Still not sure what I'm going to do. Does anyone have any suggestions for a inexpensive, small, hang-on skimmer?
 
Because this tank is an acrylic hexagon, it has a rather large lip all the way around. Does anyone know of any small, hangon type skimmers that can hang on to somthing 2" thick?
 
I just put a Remora on my acrylic nano. Great Skimmer, I love it. Marine Depot has it for $163. I'd pass on the Bak-Pak and spend the extra $40 on the Remora. It looks great and is very low-maintance. As far as filtration goes, will this be a fish only or reef tank? If it's fish only I'd keep the canister and throw some bio-media in there in additon to a skimmer. If it's going to be a reef, you could still use the canister (you really don't need it), but just run carbon in it w/ a skimmer. Thats all you need.
 
Well, I'm looking around for used, and I'm just seeing if a bak-pak woudl fit if I got a good deal on it.

The tank is starting as a FOWLR, but after some time I may decide to start making it a reef tank. So I think i'll go ahead with the skimmer now, just to be safe.

Thanks for the info. :)
 
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