Adding new Filter to Established tank

It depends on what you want to accomplish.....what are you looking to have the filter for? If it's just for surface movement, then you can run it empty for that matter. If you want some water clarity, you can run GAC in it...again, it depends on what your tank may need.....

 

Why are you adding a filter? I would look into a skimmer rather than some sort of mechanical filter. That's just my opinion.

 

A skimmer is not really necessary on a 20g. As stated, the HOB will provide a place to hang media bags for GAC and GFO which will absorb the same organics as a skimmer plus a plethora of non-organic contaminants, nutrients, and toxins that the skimmer cannot remove.

 

Mr. Bill....you know how I roll. I wouldn't run a tank without a skimmer to save my soul. Old Tank Syndrome is caused by long periods of minimal filtration. Do all the water changes you want but if you aren't using something to export the waste, it has to go somewhere. Once all of those nasty, filthy phosphates are absorbed into the LR and sand, it will start leeching. When it starts leeching, people bail out of the hobby because, for some reason, they can't control the GHA and Cyano that has taken over their tank because they didn't want to spend 100 bucks on a simple piece of filtration. Remember, skimmers also export some solids which your GAC and GFO will not do. Skimmers are too inexpensive nowadays to pass up on. You can get a good HOB unit for 100 bucks and that would be absolutely fine to run on a 20 gallon tank. Heck, a seaclone would work great on a 20 gallon tank. With this being said, I have only ran larger systems in the past so maybe I'm wrong and my logic might be flawed. If that's the case, I accept and will move on but most of the more successful sps/lps systems run protien skimmers for a reason. Even smaller ones.

 

I respectfully disagree. As my sig implies, I've enjoyed the hobby for 39 years, now. Not once have I had a tank crash from OTS or anything else. Only once I had a skimmer, and I was not impressed.

OTS is caused by poor maintenance. All the filtration in the world will not clean the sandbed. Detritus gets buried where it can fester in a low-oxygen environment. Eventually, the gasses must be released. You either employ sand sifters, you vacuum, or you risk suffering OTS.

Sand is sand, and rocks are rocks. They cannot and do not "absorb" anything. Yes, they can become loaded IF the tank itself is suffering high nutrient levels. Otherwise, with proper maintenance, regardless of filtration, tanks have lasted for many, many years without issues.

And again, GAC and GFO absorb all the same organics that a skimmer removes, plus a whole lot more.

I'm not saying a skimmer is bad, but it's not necessary, especially on smaller tanks.

 

Nothing! LOL, As others have stated, people rarely use the 'pads' on SW tanks anymore. Flow, various media bags- like those stated above can and will help. And as stated, if you use any of these, clean and/or change often, or you're opening a 'can of worms' and causing way more problems with your tank then you ever were tryng to solve.

As i sit and watch the gentle shimmer of my RB LED's on this morning, sipping my Expresso coffee (half milk)...

 

Mmmm Speaking of GAC, I have some Activated Carbon here anyway. As I stated earlier I want to achieve some Water Clarity.

 

well, there you go, put in some carbon and it definitely helps water clarity.

 

Yeah. Thanks a lot guys!