Getting rid of WD filter?

[Masoch]

Hi,

 

I'm setting up a 20 gallon tank. Specs:

 

2x 15 watt flos

1 inch aragonite

15 pounds Fiji LR

1 AquaClear 201 powerhead

1 SeaClone 100 (on 12 hour timer with lights ... it's kinda' noisy

Hagen BioLife 35 WD filter (includes heater)

 

The tank is just over a month old. The bioload is currently low; 1 royal gramma, 2x cleaner shrimp, 2x peppermint shrimp, some turban snails and some blue-legged hermit crabs. I'm thinking of ditching the BioLife 35 for something less intrusive . How much LR would I have to get need for biological filtering? I have another 201 PowerHead with the optional carbon filter, so I'm covered for carbon filtration.

 

Ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels are 0 -> undectable by my Hagen test kits, pH is 8.2 or so, salinity's at 1.023 ... and coralline algae growth has started. One of my snails even seems to have a healthy colony of some kind of feather duster on it.

 

Any other suggestions are welcomed, of course!

 

Thanks for the advice!

[Dave ESPI]

Masoch said.......

Hi,

 

I set up a 20 gallon tank and really didnt think to much about it. Specs:

 

2x 15 watt flos

1 inch aragonite

15 pounds Fiji LR

1 AquaClear 201 powerhead  

1 SeaClone 100 (on 12 hour timer with lights ... it's kinda' noisy  

Hagen BioLife 35 WD filter (includes heater)

 

The tank is just over a month old. The bioload is currently...

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

 

LURK MORE.

 

Aragonite should be deeper.

Floros are not reccomended fer mini reefs (Are ok for FOWLR)

Keep the filter set-up you have.

The Wet/dry is why your levels are not showing up. You tank is way new for you to be stocking it with fish and stuff.

Initial cycles ar MOST important to NOT stress a tank.

Don't be surprized if you get a "bounce effect" from improper time alloted to cycling.

 

Try reading some older threads and looking at some other setups.

 

ps: Welcome to NR.com

[cjm033]

some turban snails

hes fromthe taliban! lol.

[Masoch]

Sorry for the late reply -- family have descended upon my house.

 

Anyways, I've been lurking for about a month, have gone through 3 or 4 books on reef-keeping, trolled through other on-line forums and sites, and have a very good LFS. The confusing part is the endlessly contradictory advice from knowledgeable sources.

 

For setting up and cycling the tank, I've been relying on Your First Marine Aquarium by John Tullock. My LFS has reccomended it to many folks with excellent results. The approach is basically what I've done; add salt water and substrate, wait for it to settle, and LR, wait for initial algae and cyano growth to dissipate, wait for amonia / nitrate / nitrite levels to drop, then add a clean-up crew of snails and crabs. Week by week, slowly add a few more custodians (shrimp, brittle stars, etc.), building up to fish around week 4 if all levels are stable -- looking at the calendar, I'm almost at week 6.

 

So far, everything's worked exactly as described in the book. But what would you have done differently? What signs of the tank having been cycled would you have waited for? Again, I'm a reef neophyte who's sifting through information overload.

 

As for my filter ... here's some more contradictory advice. Some folks say that w/d filters contribute to spikes in nitrate and/or nitrite levels and that LR is the only way to go ... some folks say you gotta have 'em in small tanks. Others are somewhere in between. Some say 3 inches substrate elevated off bottom + live sand. Others say LR is enough and 1 inch of substrate is adequate. For me, I would rather have more LR and better carbon filtration (the BioLife's carbon filter has less than a tablespoon of carbon) if possible ... but perhaps a WD that sits mostly outside the tank + the carbon filter attachment on my 201 powerhead + a better heater. More substrate wouldn't be hard to add either -- but I'm not sure what it would give me.

 

Whuchya think?

[tinyreef]

opinions are like @ssholes, everyone's got one. here's mine (opinion, that is )

 

you don't have to have anything other than salt & water for your tank. you don't even need salt (FW ). oooh yeah, the other side of the hobby. :

 

wet/dry's are ok imo but my take on the nitrate issue with them is the facilitation of higher nitrates rather than just plain creating higher nitrates (as i've heard stated by many peeps). for denitrating bacteria to function and live optimally it should be next to the nitrating bacteria. a w/d wouldn't be the most optimal setting (too much O2 contact).

 

the dead ends and porosity of rock allow denitrating bacteria to function where bioballs would not due to the ease of water flow thru the bb's. that's partly why many peeps remove bioballs (without knowing why imo). you can replace the bb's with porous rock (not necessarily LR) or built up crushed coral (what i did).

 

basically, imo the w/d's just outcompete the LR/LS in processing the system waste but do not 'make' nitrate in the sense they're inherently bad, just operating 'too efficiently'. (i hope that made sense X) )

 

so altho they due tend to promote/maintain higher levels of nitrate w/d's still have their place imo i.e. heavy bioload systems like FO or predator tanks. good quality (structural-wise) LR and well-maintained LS (cleanup crew) should be able to easily process according to the traditional rule of 1" fish/10g.

 

if what you did worked, you did it right imo. there's no wrong way (unless it crashes X) ). i also like using carbon but that's just my $0.02.

[Masoch]

Oi, more information overload

 

So, here's my situation. More charcoal filtration would be a good thing -- my water's noticeably clearer with the extra AquaClear 201 + carbon filtration attachment ... but it's big and makes my tank look fugly. How about moving one of the porous, ceramic bricks from the BioLife, and replacing it with a pouch containing a couple tablespoons of charcoal?

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

And everything's still going well. The gramma's becoming more bold, the shrimp feed like crazy (they've all molted at least once, and two have molted twice), the snails are keeping the algae in check, and the crabs are ... scuttling.

[tinyreef]

sorry, as you probably noticed i tend to babble on. X)

 

point i was trying to make was w/d's do a very good job of filtering NH3 and NO2. LR/LS can handle all three N's but can't match w/d's for the first two in small quantities imo.

 

i was going to comment on biopore too (see how longwinded i am). their ease of flow-thru works against them for denitrating tho. you want dead-ends and lower flow to allow for denitrating. the biopore's great for nitrating tho.

 

you may want to try carbon instead. just leave the carbon in there, basically forever. i do this in my power filter, enormous surface area and some dead-end abilities (hi-flow area tho). i've never tried it solo myself tho, always as supplemental filtration (i.e. carbon only, no LR/LS : hmmm, sounds like another experiment in the making).