Whose using ONLY LIVE ROCK as filtration?

[crazinezz978]

I decided to setup another 55 gallon in my little brothers room. Its gonna be a FOWLR tank for now. I want to avoid having to drill the tank and setup a wet/dry filter and return, not the mention the plumbling(which i especially suck at)

 

so, anyone here running a tank with a decent bioload with using live rock as the ONLY filtration? Im gonna have a micro-refugium, 60 pounds of live rock and a koralia 3, and thats it, is it do-able?

 

if anyone is running a tank using only live rock, would you please post the size of the tank, amount of rock and which fish they are keeping?

 

BTW, for livestock, all i plan to keep is a 4" huma trigger and a 5" niger trigger.

[kkyyllee]

i keep a 5 gallon nano with 5lbs liverock, zoas, and a 1"damsels temporareily

 

that livestock wont work out tho tanks not big enough

[crazinezz978]

the tank should be big enough. Ive kept triggers for over 5 years and at this size, i think they should be fine. When they get bigger ofcourse, ill just move them to my 220g aggressive FOWLR.

 

so, anyone else??

[Duncan]

Hi, if this helps...

 

I'm running 2 tanks with just live rocks only. In addition, I use carbon 24/7.

 

The first tank is a 20g mix-reef, using 26 lbs of live rocks and the sandbed is less than 1 inch. Livestock is 2 common clowns, a trio of cleaner shrimps and a big bunch of snails (>10).

 

This tank been up for 9 months. The thread is under my sig, Singapore Green Tank.

 

The second tank is a 20g sps/clam only, using 28 lbs of live rocks and is barebottom. Livestock is just a damsel, without any cleanup crew. I just started this sps tank 3 weeks ago, but the tank been up since January.

 

I have tonnes of macro algaes in both tanks, which I think contribute a lot to the stability. But the macro (including most of the micro) in the lst tank had died ever since I introduced phosguard. To keep the nitrate down, I feed only 2-3 times a week. I also siphon the bottom every 2 weeks.

 

hth

[crazinezz978]

yea i was thinking of adding carbon to the tank too.

 

anyone with a high bioload live rock filtered tank?

[ljse]

I had a 2.5 gallon that I only used live rock and a small power head and it worked fine, but I did have a lot of macros, so that probably helped a lot.

[reefdan]

i have a 24g aquapod with about 25-30 lbs of live rock and about 15lbs of live sand. that's all i run. i never run carbon (i did once for two days when my tank almost KO'd because an ICA melted into it) or any chemical filtration. i run cheato on a reverse light cycle.

 

live stock:

- 2 true percs

- 1 medium (about 6-8 inches full) BTA

- 1 cleaner shrimp

- 2 harlequin (clown) shrimp

- 1 starfish, being slowly digested

- 15 or so blue hermits

- 5 astreas

 

tank has been up over a year

[mattyice]

i would still say those triggers are too large for a tank like that, i had my 6" golden back in my 125 and he looked like a submarine in the tank, maybe look at some more aggressive wrasses for the tank as i think they have a much more unique movement and can be more colorful and just as cheap

 

as for just LR i think you could do it, i would just have alot of decent flow in the tank and would do more regular water changes along with running macro and carbon, thats pretty much what i did in my 125 and run the skimmer only a few days of the week, and kept a filter media pad in there to collect any un eaten food or any fish poo

[crazinezz978]

goldenbacks are Xanthichthys i think. they usually tend to be more active then other triggers. odonus and rhinecanthus genera tend to be the less active ones. They wouldnt live in a 55 gallon for more then a year, so im positive it will be fine.

 

Anyone else??

[shaggydoo541]

I've got 4 tangs, 2 angels, a clown, mandarin and blenny in my 120g. Just have some macro in the sump and run carbon. Simple and effective and my SPS couldn't be happier I also feed heavily both for my fish and my LPS.

[AMSR]

Anyone else??

 

 

I wouldn't do it. Get a HOB skimmer at least like a backpack or something. I have run 55s with HOB skimmer and a large aquaclear (mainly for carbon/mech filtration) and it works great. You don't need a sump. I'd hesitate to go only with LR cause you won't have a buffer for nutrient spikes, etc..

[supahtim]

i do too... but you'll notice that most of the people that do this have nano aquariums. on your 55g, you'll need to do constant heavy water changes to keep the water half decent. especially with your tank being a predator tank. having a half decent skimmer will help out a lot in keeping the water quality good.

 

Tim

[crazinezz978]

bought a remora skimmer for the tank. Hoping that would be enough filtration. Anyone else wanna chime in?

[reefernanoman]

I run my 75g with a hang on skimmer and a canister filter. I have no refugium. It is doing well for now.

[fewskillz]

I think a skimmer will be plenty. My 54 has a sump, but there's nothing in it but water, so I'm pretty much all LR.

[spark]

I have a 54 corner bow also with about 60 lbs of live rock. Run a sump with some carbon. I have a Coralife superskimmer good up to 125 gallons. External Pan World return pump. I use a separate little quietone pump to go to a UV and Chiller.

 

I change about 10 gallons of water every 3-4 weeks and it has been very stable for a couple years. But agree with supahtim that in a 54 (nano or medium size tanks), live rock and water changes are the most important. The oversized skimmer allows me to do less water changes and less maintenance on the tank.

 

Highly recommend a sump. More water & good flow = a more stable tank. I am a scuba diver for over 28 years and I found in the ocean the best reefs always have good currents. So I have a couple small Hydor Korolia pumps on a reefkeeper to get rid of dead spots.

 

If I could do it all again, I would do the 90 gallon cornerbow.

[Reeftopia]

bought a remora skimmer for the tank. Hoping that would be enough filtration. Anyone else wanna chime in?

 

 

Hello- I think that you could use the Berlin system for this tank. I am not currently running a Berlin tank but I have in the past and I have alot fo friends who do. The most important thing is to NOT have any sand substrate. Bare bottom is what you need. If you have sand it will attract detritus and subsequently create a build-up of nitrate. You will need more flow than a Koralia 3.... maybe two or three Koralia 4's. We can not even come close to reproducing the amount of flow on a natural reef. Any of the propeller pumps are our best option though (koralia, tunze, vortech). One big plus to the Berlin system is that the cycle or maturation process is alot quicker. A healthy reef or community tank can be set up in about one week becuase there is no nitrite phase. A good quality skimmer is a must have so that all nitrogenous waste can be removed before the nitrite process begins. What kind of lighting are you thinking of? Even though you aren't going to have any corals you will still need to have some quality light to maintain your LR. T-5's would be very nice for this task. As far as stocking goes not sure if those two triggers would be the best idea but if you are set on those fish I would perhaps go with a few other species like wrasse first... then add the triggers one by one probably doing the Picaso last. JMO but then again I don't have much expierence with triggers. Hope this helps, let me know if you have anymore questions about bare bottom tanks or Berlin! Have fun!

[avalanche1201]

my 3gal pico is only filtered by LR and LS (of course i have floss to catch debris but who doesn't)

[shaggydoo541]

my 3gal pico is only filtered by LR and LS (of course i have floss to catch debris but who doesn't)

 

I don't even have floss. Unless you count chaeto.

[masterbuilder]

Just live rock....well...almost...I run floss up-stream from the rock.

[bentwookie]

Finally someone with the same question as me. I've been lurking around here for a while getting ideas and hopefully a little knowledge about SW tanks. I want a FOWLR tank. I have my eye on a 56 gallon at my LFS and was wondering about any type of filtration. If the LR is all you need with some added flow thats awesome. I was looking into an AquaC Remora Protein Skimmer if I needed one. I'm also going to add at least (2) Koralia 2 pumps.

I guess if anyone can let me know if I need the Skimmer or not and if I need to add any other type of filtration that would be great.

 

Thanks!

[zprhead]

I have a BioCube 14 and all I run is LR and LS. It has 20 lbs of LR in the tank, a bed of 20 lbs of LS and about 3 lbs of LR rubble in the second chamber. I removed the bio balls and filter cartridge. I have a chemi pure bag in chamber one. My livestock so far consists of one blue damsel, two turbo snails, a cleaner shrimp and a frogspawn. It has been up and running for a month now and I have no issues at all. The LR is very well cured and I got every piece from the same LFS.

[bentwookie]

Finally someone with the same question as me. I've been lurking around here for a while getting ideas and hopefully a little knowledge about SW tanks. I want a FOWLR tank. I have my eye on a 56 gallon at my LFS and was wondering about any type of filtration. If the LR is all you need with some added flow thats awesome. I was looking into an AquaC Remora Protein Skimmer if I needed one. I'm also going to add at least (2) Koralia 2 pumps.

I guess if anyone can let me know if I need the Skimmer or not and if I need to add any other type of filtration that would be great.

 

Thanks!

 

 

anyone?

[shaggydoo541]

FOWLR is a little harder to keep going. Corals essentially clean and aerate the water, while fish pollute. This is an oversimplification but works. I attribute a lot of my success to the fact that I have a heavy bioload but lots of corals. Its a bit of a balancing act. If I was to ever run a FOWLR I would definitely run a skimmer. I dislike skimmers on reefs and feel they are harmful but if there are no filter feeders (aka corals) then there is no reason not to try and pull out as much as you can from the tank. Flow is also not much of an issue with a FOWLR. As long as you keep the water aerated and properly mixed (salty) fish will be ok. I would still try to keep lots of water movement though just because I am a flow fanatic.