Archivarium 2004

[sirreal63]

There seems to be a varying thought on turnover rate through the sump or fuge. I tried the high volume, high turnover rate, 600 gph in my 58, what I noticed was a lot of noise, the skimmer didn't work as well and a lot of tweaking to keep the overflow from flushing. Following the advice of some fellow reefers, I changed the pump back to one that gives me about 200 gph through the system. What did I discover? The skimmer works better, there is no noise, in fact the tank is almost silent now, and the overflow no longer has the flushing effect. I use powerheads for flow in the tank, and am building a closed loop with a scwd to replace the powerheads.

The reasoning, a lower flow allows the skimmer more contact time with the surface skimmed water, which has the most nasties in it, instead of mixing it back into the water column. It has worked, and worked well. I will continue to use a lower turnover rate, it is much less of a hassle and my water parameters have improved. Some may not agree with this, but I tend to stay with what is working and not try to have the most horsepower in my sump.

A 600 gph overflow will have issues trying to run it at 600 gph. Any air bubbles or slowing of the flow by algae can cause the tank to overflow as the pump will be putting in more water than the overflow can take out. I have been there, it wasn't pretty.
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Jack
29 gallon planted various fish
58 gallon salt, 30g fuge
75 gallon planted, 5.45 wpg

[TheVillageIdiot]

do you think a 600gph overflow running w/ a 500gph pump would be too much?
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20g planted - 1.5 wpg - pea gravel/sand/laterite - DIY co2

[freya]

Hi.. ) here I am.. )
I was reading around net about FO tanks.. a I found in a couple places this sistem..;
1x Ehiem 2228 with active carbon and micron sponge
1x Ehiem 2228 with bio balls and micron sponge
1x hang on venturi skimmer - 200 gal/hour

the problem is that I can't have (read: find) live rock / sand form my tank so I must make a bio filtration in some other way.. are bio balls enough? how much?
and can you pls tell me how to beat NO2, NO3 and amoniac in my tank? is there any filter media that I can put in Ehiem?

tnx!

[FloridaBoy]

Yes, Eheim's are an option my friend, they do make a bio media.
Lots of options here; IMO you can also go with a good skimmer/wet dry trickle filter, or bio wheel hang on units, or for a really simple/economical solution you can get an undergravel with two or three powerheads. Contrary to a previous post, I have not used the UG with sand, just old fashioned crushed coral gravel. If you cannot get cruushed coral in Croatia, you can use crushed oyster shell available at most feed stores (called pullet, for chicken feed) This is not a perfect solution, but I have used the UG in the past, it will work for you and seeding the wheel/trickle media or gravel with sand or gravel from a healthy established marine tank will take care of the ammonia problem but it takes time, and you really need to read/understand the basics of marine husbandry before you start. May I suggest "CONSCIENTIOUS MARINE AQUARIST" by Fenner, good book for you, it's harder to get a complete picture from forums. Keep reading/planning and you will have great success.
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years

[dale]

Hi F.B.,
Sorry, my mistake. I was just directing her to your system and didn't take the time to be specific about the substrate.
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Think like a fish

[The Old Salt]

I would suggest that the next thing to do would be to ask Freya just what she wants to keep in this tank. An undergravel filter with a simple crushed coral bottom would work fine for a purely fish-only tank under a light bioload. However, we don't know a few things, such as:

1--- Does this Croatian understand all those acronyms that villiageidiot flinged at her?

2--- What types of equipment are even available in her country?

3--- How many fish does she want, and of what species?

Once we know these things, we can better determine what would work best for her.

[FloridaBoy]

Yep, her original post outlines her bio plan pretty well.
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years

[The Old Salt]

Not really. All it says is some clownfish. Nothing else.

By the way, I somehow missed the whole of page two in this thread when I read it the first time, so when I posted it was without the knowledge of what had been said on page two, which still doesn't say how many clowns and which species.

[SLACkra]

the old salt has a very good point. general rule of thumb is 1 clownfish per tank unless the clowns are both jeuvinilles or pairs(jeuvinilles will become a pair) except for very large systems. 100 gallons of water is a lot of room for just clownfish. maybe a 30-40 gallon tank would be better for what you want to do and because you seem to want cheap/easy you will not need to spend as much on filtration and then can invest in a better skimmer which is a must for any begginer marine aquarium keeper.

my 2 cents

andrew
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32g planted community
7.5g Nano Reef
1 four legged wonder napper
2 winged demons

[FloridaBoy]

Ahhh yep, good points here. unfortunately... I think Freya flew the coop.
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years