How To Get The Max Out Of May Harware?

[Robert247]

I am a bit unsure now i actually have my hardware about where to position it in my rio 125.
I have a red sea prizm hang on skimmer, a fluvel 304 external filter and the standard jewel internal filter with a 600 power-head. I plan on having all of this running and eventual have it as reef but at the moment i dont have anything in it (sand,water ect).

I just want to know how to position it all to get the best out of it.
at the moment i have the intake from the external filter in the internal filter which is at the right side of the aquarium if that makes sense and the outlet over to the left this means the intake is all from about the same place but the powerhead and external outlet are facing each other is this ok.

any feedback will be appreciated if anyone can understand my poorly written mumbo-jumbo.

 

[Musho3210]

i have my powerhead on one side, my protein skimmer on the other, and everything else wherever looks good.

 

[bobf]

Depends really on what your tank's going to hold as to whether you need the filters (internal or external) at all? Many folks with the Jewell range of tanks take all that out to get more room in the tank for livestock, rock etc.

If you're going down the reef route, live rock and the skimmer should take care of most of the filtration needs anyway. All you really need beyond that is adequate water movement - around 20x tank volume turnover per hour.

Where the skimmer goes depends upon whether you keep a top on your tank and if so, where you want to cut it. Alternatively you might opt for a sump in which case it could be out of sight altogether?

I'd be inclinded to either dump the filters and get more powerheads, or just use the external as a means of water movement not filtration, perhaps stick some rowaphos in it, maybe some live rock too? Certainly get rid of the internal and remove its housing - just cut the silicon away but be careful near the joins in the sides of your tank - don't want to weaken them.

First place to start is what do want to keep - then the water movement/lighting/substate/live rock or filtration etc follow that?

 

[Robert247]

i want to go reef