What filtration should I be running?

[BreBearz]

I currently have a course filter spounge,carbon and quartz rings. What else should I have? My tank just finished cycling and I will be getting clowns soon. I have a 24g tank which I will eventually also getting corals. 
 

also when do I start using my tank lights? I have a Ai prime hd16. Once I get corals? Once I get a CUC? Haven’t had any algae yet and want to keep it at that.  I have the aquatop AIO tank so I have the back compartment to use. I am not useing a protein slimmer as I’ll be doing 5-10% water change every week or every two weeks

[BreBearz]

Btw I cut the ends off the zip ties if anyone mentions that lol 

[paulsz]

make sure you get a powerhead for the display part. Most of your biological filtration is on the rock, so you'll want flow there. Maybe something with like 400-500 gph flow, if you plan on having soft corals. Higher if you want SPS (like 600 gph). Any small powerhead would do i think. 

 

you can remove the quartz rings and coarse filter sponge. No need for those. You should get filter floss (huge bags of this stuff sold at crafts store. It's the white stuff you use to stuff pillows and all. Just make sure it's the 100% polyester stuff. No additives. I use poly-fill bags from Michaels). Or you can get some from the fish store but it'll be more expensive because it's "aquarium gear" and not just "polyester fill". 

 

Lights can be off until you get corals. Or you can turn them on when you get fish. You will get algae in the beginning. All tanks go through an ugly diatoms phase. They'll go away eventually. 

 

Whatever you do, do not aim to have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. That can cause much bigger issues and those are tougher to resolve. I've done it myself twice 😞 So maybe aim for 5-10 ppm nitrates and 0.03-0.1ppm phosphates. Some people may say even higher, others may say lower.

 

 

[Clown79]

A good carbon and filter floss.

 

Buy the carbon in the bigger containers and bag it yourself. Change every 2 weeks.

 

I use 2 tbsp in my 25g. Not too much but enough to help with coral toxins

 

Filter floss- cheap when purchased in bulk. Cut to size and change 2 - 3 times a week

 

Anything else should be used on a need to basis

[505nano]

6 hours ago, BreBearz said:

I currently have a course filter spounge,carbon and quartz rings. What else should I have? My tank just finished cycling and I will be getting clowns soon. I have a 24g tank which I will eventually also getting corals. 
 

also when do I start using my tank lights? I have a Ai prime hd16. Once I get corals? Once I get a CUC? Haven’t had any algae yet and want to keep it at that.  I have the aquatop AIO tank so I have the back compartment to use. I am not useing a protein slimmer as I’ll be doing 5-10% water change every week or every two weeks

Similar to what I'm running. I'm running poly filter floss on top, matrix carbon, purigen then matrix bio media. I have a biocube 16

[Tired]

You won't be able to keep your tank at no algae, and shouldn't try. Algae is a normal and healthy part of your aquarium. Remember that most corals have algae in them, so you want an environment that's at least somewhat hospitable to algae. The more types of algae you have living on your rockwork, the harder it is for pest algae (hair algae, etc) to get a foothold and cause problems. 

 

The most important thing to have is just flow. All other aspects of filtration are as-needed, not mandatory. Filter floss and a bit of activated carbon are good to have in a lot of tanks, but plenty of systems will run just fine even without that. Some really nice tanks on here just have a powerhead for water movement, no actual filtration. All your biological filtration lives on your live rock, so having a filter is much less important than it is in freshwater.