First Saltwater Tank

[ccejka]

Made the jump to saltwater reef tanks with a 20L. Looking for any advice I can get!

 

Here's what I have 

 

Tank: 20 Long     Light: Current USA 24-36 Orbit IC Led      Wave Pump: Current USA 660GPH     Filtration: AquaClear HOB 70 with Sponge Matrix Bio Media and Active Carbon & Finnex HOB refugium with Fuge Ray LED filled with live rock and chaeto algae, I put a aqueon 50w heat in the refugium.

 

I have seen a lot of people saying that a lot of filtration isn't need but can it be a bad thing? I plan on doing water changes and vacuuming weekly. I was also looking at the Eshopp HOB PSK-75H protein skimmer, again a lot of people say its not need but can it hurt?

 

I am on week 2 right now of the cycle and I see diatoms forming I did a water test came back with 0 Nitrite, Ammonia, and Phosphates. I plan on my first water change after 3 weeks and testing every week to keep a record of it. 

 

I am really enjoying learning and looking forward to the process of creating this tank and eco system

[Clown79]

Too much filtration can reduce nutrients to very low to 0 nutrients which isn't beneficial to coral.

 

You won't know until the system is up and running because everyones tanks are different. 

 

The sponge in the filter I would ditch and use filter floss instead. Sponges are not good for reefs. Floss is replaced twice a week. It helps trap particles but don't create issues with nutrient control.

[ccejka]

15 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Too much filtration can reduce nutrients to very low to 0 nutrients which isn't beneficial to coral.

 

You won't know until the system is up and running because everyones tanks are different. 

 

The sponge in the filter I would ditch and use filter floss instead. Sponges are not good for reefs. Floss is replaced twice a week. It helps trap particles but don't create issues with nutrient control.

 

I planned on putting filter floss in the HOB AquaClear before adding any life, waiting to get a inTank media basket to break up the area and have somewhere to put it. 

 

It was recommended to pull the live rock out of my refugium, would you recommend pulling the Martix Bio media out of the aquaclear, if so would you leave the carbon bag in it?

[dling]

My only filtration is rock,sand and skimmer. Its a sps,lps tank. All is doing good. More is not always better.

[jesseatam]

My aquaclear 70 just circulates water on my 30 gallon in its current state. Many will probably tell you to ditch the sponge  but It never caused me any problems while I had it in but I did eventually get rid of it. You can run carbon if you feel like you need to due to chemical warfare and I ran it for a while but imo it really isn't needed and can cause some degree of fluctuations in nutrients when you replace the exhausted  carbon with a fresh batch. I personally don't see an issue with additional bio media as it just gives even more surface area for beneficial bacteria, it also provides another potential safe space and breeding area for pods and other organisms. Over filtration can definitely hurt, think of a reef like a rain forest and the nutrients in the soil of the forest like nutrients in the water column. The nutrients aren't low due to a lack of them, they're low simply due to the fact that the nutrient uptake is so incredibly high that it almost matches the intake.

[ccejka]

6 hours ago, jesseatam said:

My aquaclear 70 just circulates water on my 30 gallon in its current state. Many will probably tell you to ditch the sponge  but It never caused me any problems while I had it in but I did eventually get rid of it. You can run carbon if you feel like you need to due to chemical warfare and I ran it for a while but imo it really isn't needed and can cause some degree of fluctuations in nutrients when you replace the exhausted  carbon with a fresh batch. I personally don't see an issue with additional bio media as it just gives even more surface area for beneficial bacteria, it also provides another potential safe space and breeding area for pods and other organisms. Over filtration can definitely hurt, think of a reef like a rain forest and the nutrients in the soil of the forest like nutrients in the water column. The nutrients aren't low due to a lack of them, they're low simply due to the fact that the nutrient uptake is so incredibly high that it almost matches the intake.

That makes sense I am pulling the sponge out Monday and replacing it with filter floas when my media basket arrives, I also got the surface skimmer for the AC70. I have heard of people running different seachem products so trying to learn as much about those as I can before my tank cycles

 

I was told at the LFS that the carbon will make the water "clearer" any truth to that? 

 

I pulled all the rock from my HOB refugium so for filtration I have my rock and sand in the display tank, seachem bio medal (was considering removeing this when the media basket arrives), carbon, filter floss, and the refugium. 

[jesseatam]

6 minutes ago, ccejka said:

I was told at the LFS that the carbon will make the water "clearer" any truth to that? 

Yes it will. Naturally over time your water will get a slight greenish tint but it doesn't affect viewing at least as far as I can tell, I've only noticed it in my water change bucket which is white. There's nothing wrong at all with running carbon, in fact in the early stages of your tank starting up I'd recommend it to help with any unexpected nutrient spikes but over time as your tank matures you probably won't find it necessary.