Should I be using my Penguin Bio-Wheel 330 for reef tank?

[chiefrokka]

I bought 75g tank from someone which he had as Fish Only... I'm converting to reef tank. I read on some forum that you don't need any biowheel filter thing if you have skimmer and enough LR. can anyone help with this topic and explain more??

Please review my whole setup and tell me if there's anything I should or shouldn't be using for a reef tank:

- dual Penguin Bio-Wheel 330 I think.
............... carbon bag in 1 of the wheels and phosphate bag in both I believe.. I forget names of chemicals
- wet/dry system.
............... I'm slowly taking bio-balls out... will take more out once I get all my LR this weekend. Should i put LR in the sump instead of bioballs?
............... there's 3 filter pads in wet/dry.. I believe phosphate, amonia, and something else I forget what it is?
- getting 60 lbs. of live rock this weekend from LFS (I have 15ish now)
- Just got my Euro-Reef CS6-2 protein skimmer today. haven't set up yet
- Just ordered (2) Seio 1100 pumps today
........................... the right side of my 75g is taken up with the biowheel and little cup holder for the "U" tube suction.(forget what that container is called) Not sure where I'm going to put both of these Seio pumps unless I put both on left side of tank? I read I should get two of these pumps, is that correct?
- 300 W heater... which is very hard to keep temp at 80 exact.. fluctuates from 78-80.7 (should i get another heater? I dont like the settings on it. I even turned it up to 82 and the heater could never get it to 82... most it could do is like 81.5 or so)
- PC Lighting - JBJ Formose Deluxe 65Wx4 (orded but haven't gotten yet)
.......... (2) 10000k and (2) 71000k blue

 

[crumbletop]

IMO, with the LR, the skimmer, and the Seio's you won't need to use the penguins. You could use one of them as a place to run carbon or the phosphate binder from time to time, but they aren't needed for biofiltration. The LR should take care of that...

THe rest of the stuff looks okay. That's odd that the 300W heater won't heat up past 82 degrees. I'd get 2 smaller (200W?) heaters to use in place of it, and use it for heating up water change water.

I can't tell if you have a sump or not, but you can get rid of all the bioballs etc from there. Also, if you do have a sump, you may have a place in there where you could run the carbon, etc, and you could then completely get rid of the penguins for use on your 75.

To explain the LR/biowheel thing, the LR has beneficial bacteria on it like the biowheel will, but the LR also has anaerobic bacteria within the rock that can process the nitrate to nitrogen gas. With just a plain biowheel, nitrates will build up. Waterchanges are then used to get that down, and you can also grow macroalgae to export the nitrate. Nitrate is not so good for inverts, so if you are doing a reef, LR is the much better way to go. Hope that makes sense.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it

Jack

 

[chiefrokka]

thanks dude... I would like to get rid of my biowheel so I can put one of the Seio pumps on each side of the tank and point them at each other to create current I guess.. Should I wait to get rid of that biowheel until I get all of my LR this weekend? and should I wait even longer once i get the LR to make sure everything is good to go before I remove the biowheel all together?

I do have a sump... are you saying I could take the carbon/phosphate bags from the biowheels and just place them in the bottom of the sump somewhere (such as where the bioballs are, once I remove all of them)?

Should I keep the 3 filter pads that are above the bioballs or remove those as well once I get all my LR and skimmer running?

 

[chiefrokka]

also, could you explain to me macro algae and how it's used... I've been reading more and more about it on these threads... I'm assuming it's just tiny algae you place in sump or something and it's actually good for the whole tank?

 

[crumbletop]

Biowheel: I think you are fine leaving the penguins in place until you get the seios.

New LR: if this is fully cured from your LFS, you can just go ahead and use it and you should be good to go. You haven't mentioned your bioload in the tank right now (how many fish, etc). If you have a huge bioload, you would probably be best served by running the penguins for a week along with the new LR. Then when you remove the penguins, monitor your tank params and make sure you are not starting a cycle.

Phosphate bags: You could get rid of the bioballs and the sponges in the sump. That section of the sump is where you could put bags of carbon, etc. It is a spot that all the water would flow by, so that is probably a good spot for it. If you are using good water (RO/DI) you will likely not need to use phosphate binders too often.

Macroalgae: That is actually large algae that looks like plants. There are different types. I don't have any of this, so I can't really comment on how you should go about doing it, but the general principle is it would utilize nutrients in the water (nitrates) and grow, and every so often you trim the algae back. The growing alage uses up the nitrates and keeps your water in good shape. I don't think you really want that stuff in your main tank, so having a refugium (either in sump, or separate) is where you could grow this stuff. Others would have to comment on specifics if you wanted to go this route...

Jack

 

[chiefrokka]

I currently have 8 fish but I'm getting rid of the 2 big fish right b4 I put in the LR. I have 4 small clown fish, 1 flame angel, 1 juv French angel, 1 foxnose butterfly, and 1 blenny.

when i put LR in, the french angel and butterfly are gone and i may get 2 or 3 other small fish instead... sticking with smaller type fish from now on.

I'm buying my RO/DI water from LFS for water changes... so your saying I can get rid of the penguin biowheel completely, get rid of all bioballs, and get rid of the 3 filter pads that are in the sump right now... and simply just have my water trickle down in the section where the carbon bag/phosphate bags from biowheel will now be.

good enough. thanks for your help!

 

[crumbletop]

No problem