Equipment Check

Ok let me first tell you what Im working with.
Tank: 75g
Sump: 20g long
Protein Skimmer: Sealife Style not sure which but it works great.
Rock: About 100lbs live fiji
Sand: Almost 2 inches at its highest point aragonite live sand
Fish: 2 Clowns 1 lemon peel mimic tang 2 blue damsels 1 striped cardinal 1 bicolor blenny 1 peppermint shrimp about 5 hermit crabs 4 snails 1 anenome and a few corals.
Lights: PC 4 96w bulbs 2 white 2 blue
Power Head: 2 of them not sure the name brand but they create very good current.

So Ill probably be posting different equipment here just to get an opinion of the quality of the product and or if you can tell me where to get it something better or cheaper.

Now Im experiencing a bit of a algea problem do to phosphates in my tank not to bad but want to check it before it gets out of hand so I was looking into a reactor but a dual one that can kill phosphate and use carbon but my budget doesnt allow for something then I started thinking I have a canister filter Fluval 305 from my fresh water days. It pumps 260 gph and was a great filter just wondering if I could use it as a reactor it has three chambers so I was wondering if I could take it even further and run three types of media like phosphate resin, carbon, and maybe calcium through my fluval canister?

 

Welcome to 3 reef

the cannister filter is a perfectly adequate place to run Carbon and or Phosphate removers

not as efficient as a reactor, but acceptable IME

you do not need calcium in there, you may need to add calcium at a later date along with other supplements, but not at this stage and never in the cannister filter

Steve

 

Are you using RO/DI water for your tank or are you getting it from the LFS? That might be the contributor to you algae along with old lights and over feeding.

 

Actually I had to use tap water the last two weeks got a new RO unit and installing it this week so Im pretty sure I know its coming from the tap water fortunately I know that my water company doesnt treat the waters with chloramine and its a pretty healthy filtration system so the other than being a slight bit high on the phosphate side the tap water here isnt so bad but I am still installing a RO system this wknd any how. Once I get that going and my phosphate reactor I believe that my problems will be solved however Im sure something else will come up it always does lol.

Oh and thanks for the welcome.

BTW how should I set up the media my canister has three compartments stacked on each other each compartment is split into two how should I place the media?

 

My preference is to place the carbon and GFO into seperate mesh stockings
and place them in the middle of the cannister filter in same tray

I do use some mechanical filtration media in mine, which I rinse on a weekly basis and exchange on any week I cannot be bothered cleaning it ( not scientific but very honest)

I use filter pads on 1st tier which is the mechanical media mentioned above, in order to capture particles etc, before water flows through the chamber with carbon/ GFO in
that way the carbon and GFO stay cleaner a bit longer and thus maximises their usefullness

Steve

 

oh yeah the great thing about this canister filter is that it has filter pads the water runs through before flowing through the media but seeing as I have 3 tiers each tier being split into two I wanted to make full use of it and not have anything empty or if its better to have empty trays in order to maximize flow I would like to know that too Im pretty new to saltwater so these are all things I would like to know so I dont get anything wrong.

I just want to make sure Im doing the best I can for the living creatures in my tank.

 

MeTaLMaN

Can I ask what you eventually want to keep in the aquarium? saltwater fish, saltwater fish and live rock, or saltwater fish, live rock and corals?

hobby terms are FO = fish only
FOWLR - Fish only with live rock
Reef - which is the above but with added coral

as the type of aquarium you want to keep will dictate to some degree what you put in a cannister filter

if you run a reef tank with enough live rock or a FOWLR with enough rock, then you will not need any biological media in the filter - as bacteria will live on your rock, sand , and every other surface of the aquarium

if on the other hand you just want saltwater fish in there, and do not have much rock, then you may need bio media in the filter

Steve

 

A reef tank I have listed the fish I currently have with maybe a couple of additions in the future not yet sure but I already have some Coral and would love to add more coral for sure love the color and the variety of the species.

I have about 100lbs of live fiji rock between my tank and refugium.

 

Ok so I have two power heads in my tank that came with the whole 75g setup when I bought it in researching the powerheads cause I wanted to know what I was working with I noticed that they were very cheap in price so now Im wondering if they are any good for my reef tank.

They are JVP-101a
and below are the specs on them tell me if there any good for this size tank.

360 degree circumgyratetion
Big flow impeller

Voltage:110V/220V/240V
Frequency:50Hz/60Hz
Power:5W
H-Max:0.6m
Output:3200L/H
Weight:0.5kg
Size:10cm*8cm

 

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