Straight Up - What to Do - New tank

[2smokes]

I f you have success with planted aquariums ,why dont you try the algae scrubber for filtration system? With marine aquariums there is a problem with the surface film ,youl have to fix that and theres no need for a skimmer in case you go with algae scrubber.Light is verry important and i would reccomend T5HOs each with individual reflector.14000K-16000K.Add litle sand because it gets clogged over time with detritus.As far as corals go you could grow a lot of LPS like caulastrea and soft corals in such an aquarium and somme of the hardyest sps species too like birds nest coral(the green one,the pink one cant resist much if the water gets hotter),stilopora.For chilling the water you could use fans directed to the water surface or a chiller would be the best approach.

 

[schnebbles]

I have to look and see what an algae scrubber is. I was actually wondering that. Here is the light I'm looking at now - not sure what I'm going to have but this looked nice.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K3M2L0G/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A12ANTB4273PVO

 

[Darth_Tater]

so does the skimmer take the place of a filter?

In most saltwater tanks, ALL of the bio filtering is achieved in the live rock. I really would recommend not using a canister filter unless you're MUCH more dedicated to cleaning it than I ever was. After using a sump I will never go back to a canister filter, even on freshwater setups.

There is a thread describing the purpose of skimmers that I liked, but it's on a different forum so I can't link to it here. Extremely basically, it's got 2 purposes: Gas exchange and some export of organics from the tank. I'd check the stickies in the Reef Chemistry section for more detailed info.

Edit:More Info than you'll ever want to know about skimming - Reefkeeping article