At my wits end!!

I have a 50 gallon per day RO/DI unit that I ordered from airwaterice.com. It was only about $100 and has 4 stages, a carbon prefilter, sediment filter, RO membrane and DI resin. It's called the mighty mite, you can also look around that site for other units that you may like better. Mine came with a faucet adapter and a garden hose adapter, so you can hook it up to a sink or a hose outside. I would also suggest adding a fuge as steve has mentioned, but you may want to wait until you upgrade.

 

It depends on the size of the tank and what type of corals you have. Soft corals and lps generally need moderate flow while sps coral need higher flow. It is also usually better to have multiple powers heads then 1 large one.

 

Guitarman is right. You want to have at least two powerheads that you point towards each other. This will result in more random water movement rather than a laminar flow.

 

Whats lps sps? I have a a koralia 2 moving 600gph and a koralia nano moving 24 gph, is that enough movement? i do have another koralia 2 that i have sometimes used to keep water movement when I've taken out my LR and placed them in a bucket to remove fish from my tank, i could always use that if i need more. So if i get a RO/DI unit how much gpd should I be looking for the one i found does about 90, is that enough for a 30 and when i get my 75?

 

Apologies Rynoskim

Some of my comments on that post where related to the new 75
and some where related to your present tank

Ill clarify

for present tank with a couple of fish and snails
20ppm Nitrate would be a great target
you can achieve that with water changes weekly at 20% using salt water made with RODI (unit recomendation from Guitarman)
you need to clean your rock work
you need to rinse your filter sponges in the old tank water
You may have an area in your existing sump that you could add macro to (Im not sure, but you say you have sand in there? so I would like to see what you have there)
you could consider using Purigen which will also help to remove Nitrates and then help you maintain them at lower level


for 75
when you set this tank up for corals
increased QTY of rock (base or live its all live eventually) - 1/3 tank
occupied with rock
increased flow - keep the waste suspended until it reaches overflow
incorporate a fuge with macro algaes and DSB?
get a very good skimmer - reduce the work the biological team have to do

hope thats clarified what you need to consider now
and what you need to think of in the future

Steve

 

I had chronic nitrate issues in my 24 gallon for the first several months also. Finally, I got fed up and this is what I did.

1) I got rid of the sponge filter. They fill up with detritus, and on a small tank filter floss can be changed out weekly with minimal cost.

2) Started using carbon. Again, in a small tank it is a small cost for some added insurance.

3) Switched to filtered natural seawater. They carry it at Petco and my corals were instantly happier. I know some shy away from the stuff do to cost, but it only takes 1/2 a box a week which works out to about $6.00. Not bad compared to $1000 worth of livestock, rock, etc.

Of course you should do whatever works best for you. This is what I have done and the results have been astounding. Feel free to check out the results.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/gently-modified-aquapod-65167.html