My simple, bare bottom 125g & my fish

[lowendmelody]

I haven't posted any pics of my tank or my fish yet, so I thought I would this evening.

I use a very simple approach and it has worked for me for some time now. My filtering system consists of 125 to 135 lbs of live rock, two aquaclear 110 overhead filters, and a Prizm Pro Deluxe Hang on skimmer. This Skimmer is supposedly rated for tanks up to 300 gallons. By now means do I feel this model could perform that task, but it seems to work pretty good for my 125. In my two aquaclear overheads, I use no sponge of any kind as I find this harbors excess nitrates. I fill them with small peices of Live rock rubble and broken peices of dead coral. I make sure they are smaller peices so that they are more dense and packed for better bio filtration. I change ten gallons of water weekly and on occasion more. I do not use a heater at all, my water temp keeps itself between 76 and 82 at all times, year round.

For circulation I use (1) Koralia 4 and (2) Koralia 3 units which blow directly onto and into my rockwork. I do this for better circulation through out the rockwork hopefully for further and more efficient bio filtration.

I will be finishing with the rockwork on the right hand side in the near future, as well as add another Koralia 4 at this end of the tank when I add the live rock. I like more circulation in my aquarium, and my fish seem to appreciate it as well.

I recently went barebottom as well, and I love it! .... very easy to blow off the rockwork after stopping all the circulation, then just vacuum up the detritus after it settles. It never gets all of it, but it works quite well. I do this every two weeks a well as clean the two overhead filters by rinsing the rubble in some fresh mixed saltwater and rinse the inside of the unit out. Again to remove detritus and help reduce nitrates.

I know alot of you may ask me why I don't have sump or refugium. I plan on adding a hang on overflow and attaching a good size sump / refugium. I will then be able to add macro algae and a live sand bed. Along with a much better in sump protein skimmer and a filter sock of some sort. I also want to power up my filtering now that I have 10 fish and some that eat quite a bit.

IF ANYONE HAS ANY OPINIONS OR EXPERIENCE WITH EXTERNAL HANG ON SIPHON OVERFLOWS, PLEASE SHARE SOME INFO WITH ME..... thanks

Oh, and sorry about the terrible lighting and not so good pics, I only use (3) 24" 65 watt coralife power compacts on top of my 6 foot tank. I hope to upgrade to some not so strong t-5 lighting in the near future as well.

My fish are....

3" Eible's Angelfish
2" sixine wrasse
2.5" Fuzzy Dwarf Lion
(2) juvenile 3" Blue Tangs
4" Auriga Butterfly
3" Falco Hawk
4" Lawnmower Blenny
3.5" Spotted Hawaiian Puffer
4" Hawaiian Squirrelfish

as well as a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp and a Coral Banded Shrimp.

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[lowendmelody]

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[Jerry W]

Very nice. Good selection of fish and the rock looks great. I think your shrimp will be eaten in time, but other than that, it's a neat set up.

 

[WuHT]

How long have you had your prizm pro ? I find prizms to be rather bothersome to "adjust" as a skimmer. Glad that it's working out for you though

 

[lowendmelody]

well, it's working anyway..... I've had it for about a year and a half. It is indeed a pain to get it adjusted to the point where it makes "skim", making sure it's enough flow, but not too much where it makes it overflow.

one of my next couple of things / upgrades to my tank is gonna be a overflow box with a side sump / refugium. I think I am then gonna add a Euroreef 250 skimmer rated for 250 gallons.

I hear they are good products.

 

[thor32766]

wow looks great. love the rock work!

 

[LisaD]

really nice, simple system, obviously well kept. I like the aquascaping and your fish choices. thank you for sharing. I think your idea to upgrade your skimmer is a good one. It will be nice to have the better filtration capability as your fish grow. I had a Prizm Pro and really didn't like it relative to many other models available on the market.

I have to confess, I've been running my 5' 120 (which has a much higher bioload than your tank) bb, with about 175 lbs live rock and with only a HOB refugium two HOB skimmers (Remora Pro and BakPak). Also, a couple strong powerheads for circulation. It has done really well with stable water parameters, nitrates ~20 ppm or less. My tank has two good sized eels and three fish ranging from about 5" to 8" long (grouper, pinktail trigger, dogface puffer). My return pump died a while ago, and I just popped on the HOB skimmers and left it like that as I have been going through a very long switch to a 210. So I agree, simple bb tanks can do great!