Canister filter ?

Ok I'm lookin at buying a 60 gal tank from a friend. I have 2 canister (404) that I was thinkin about using on it. I know that a sump is the way to go just tryin to save a lil bit of $. I want to know if you guys are puttin live rock in it or using the carbon? And I was just goin to run 1 of them on the tank n keep the other as a back up. After time this tank will go to a frag tank. Thanks for the help guys/lady's

 

i havent hear a lot of good coming from canisters in saltwater. for a tank that size you should most definitely have a skimmer, if not its going to cost you money. with out a skimmer/sump you will be doing more water changes and thats going to cost you more long term. IMO do it right from the start. there isnt really any room to save money in this hobby.

 

I had a feeling someone was going to say that and yes I plan running a skimmer. Everything was going to be hob but the canister. I was still up in the air about it and if I was to do a sump would a 20 gal be big enough for it

 

well I mean some people like them. But I dont really find them beneficial to saltwater. You can have LR in them, but you cant really light it, so you loose a lot of photosynthetic life on the LR that could be beneficial. I mean for a sump you could get away with 20-40 gallons, and you'll be saving money this way, as a canister will probably run you around $150+ and sump could be done for about $50 plus the cost of media/return pump and plumbing. IMO its definitely the cheaper more effective way

 

I have the canister already

 

I see haha. well its up to you I mean its great for mechanical filtration, but the nice thing about the sump is it hides everything.

 

Yea I know I was hopin there were more ups to a canister but looks like a sump for it

 

I was running a canister filter. Finally bit the bullet and switched to a sump. You cant keep live rock on it it will get no light. And those things are nitrate factories. If that's all you can afford then I guess start with it but I would highly recommend switching to a sump. Just get a 20g long.. you can prob get a sump up and running for the same price you can sell those canisters ...

 

Ok looks like I'm lookin for a 20 or 30 gal sump n all the goods for under there. I should get my skimmer before I make up the sump to make sure it fits. Right? And how big should the refuguim be for this tank?

 

well it depends theres lots of ways of doing a fuge, I keep my sump and fuge in 2 separate tanks 20g sump, 10 gallon fuge. the drain from the tank goes to a "T" joint and drains into both tanks, and the fuge drains into the sump via an small hole drilled in the tank. I find the flow is much slower this way which works best for a fuge