Please Help

[igurtin]

Hi Everyone.
I’m setting up my first salt water tank. I have a 44Gal Pentagon tank.
Can someone recommend a good filter and skimmer ?
Thank You

 

[SkiFletch]

A good filter is 44lbs of Live Rock along with around 880gph worth of powerheads

Skimmer, US or UK?

 

[igurtin]

A good filter is 44lbs of Live Rock along with around 880gph worth of powerheads

Skimmer, US or UK?

Thank You
Skimmer, US
What is 880gph ?

 

[SkiFletch]

powerheads are rated in terms of gallons per hour when re-circulating water. For instance, a Seio M820 can move 820gallons per hour of water. Something like a maxijet 1200 only moved 295gph. You can mix and match powerheads to create the total flowrate you want within the tank. Say, a maxijet 1200 (295gph) and a Seio M620 (620gph) for a total of 915gph. Make sense? I reccomend at least two powerheads so that in case one dies, you still have the other and can limp along till a replacement can be found.

Skimmer is a little difficult with a hex tank. What are the dimensions? Also will you be using a sump? And lastly, how good are you with DIY?

 

[igurtin]

Hi
Can some one please help me?
I’m setting up my first salt water fish tank. I have 44 Gal pentagon tank.
What would be the proper way to cycle the water? Should I buy some live rock? If yes how much and what kind?
Thank You
P.S. What is filter media ?

 

[enjoiskater158]

to the salty side. Correct Liverock is the most common way to cycle marine tanks. Usally the rule is 1 - 1.5 lbs of LR per Gallon of water. IMO the Fiji rock is the best, but you can also use tonga or carribean.

Filter media like Activated Carbon, ROWAphos are chemicals added to the tank to remove Ammonia, Nitrate, Phosphate, ect that are harmfully to your animals

 

[Mr Miagi]

Edit, you only need one thread mate! I added my reply to this: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...p;#entry1507620 thread.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Well considering Ski has already started one thread, I thought id move it over so the others can be removed, you only need one thread mate!

Filter media is the term applied to media which sits in a mechanical filter, such as Floss, Wool, Noodles, Carbon, Sponge and so forth.

Cycling can be accomplished by Live Rock, and this method is generally considered the best approach. Live rock will also act as your filter, so you dont need to add any form of mechanical filtration (ie. external or internal filters). You only need some internal powerheads, aiming for around 20x total tank volume turnover.

What kind of LR is up to you (im referring here to origin), but the most beneficial to new tanks without skimmers etc would be "Fully Cured". "Base Rock" holds little life, and will not look as aesthetically pleasing. "Dead Rock" also holds no filtration capacity. "Un-cured liverock" will hold organisms that will die through shipping, and its preferable not to have this in your tank to start with. A general rule of 1lb/1gallon is recommended, but as close to that as you can get should be ok.

If your new, id recommend you start reading the Stickies, or "Pinned" topics at the top of the "Marine, Reef and Chit Chat forum.