New setup filtration

Hey guys was looking for some advise.
I currently have a 400litre marine setup but have to downsize for a fee reasons so I've ordered a 200litre fluval roma and for now am going to be using a canister filter along with live rock, good circulation, protien skimmer and a deep sand bed for filtration. The filter has arrived but the tank won't be here for another week.

I was thinking of setting up the filter on an old 50litre tank to try n get some bacteria buildup? I's this a good idea or not?

Would appreciate ur opinions

 

Is there a bio-load on the tank you are thinking about setting it up on for now? If not it's not going to make a huge difference, but if you set it up on the tank you are downsizing from it should help get the bacteria going.

 

IMO you don't need the filter if you have a lot of good live rock, that will seed the tank & act as your biological filtration. A good CUC will take care of waste. You can put a filter on initially to polish the water or clear it of a sandstorm if you like.

I ran my 55g reef with just a skimmer, Phosphate reactor, good circulation, lots of live rock & sand, worked great & less maintenence by not having any other filtration to clean.

If your rock is base/dead rock, then you could seed it with the filter media initially and once live, the rock can be your main source of bio filtration.

 

The bio loads fairly small, in the current tank I have a flame angel, two clowns, a green chromis and a cleaner shrimp.

Ok I think I'll set it up on the big tank for now and have it setup on the new tank initially and see how it goes in the future. I ha heard people just use a skimmer, sand bed, live rock and food water flow but wasn't sure how effective it was?