Upgrading My Equipment Alittle

[Lovesfish]

For the time we have had the tank its had a protein skimmer and a penguin filter on it but we've since decided to upgrade to a ehiem canister filter becuase we can't do a sump do to lack of room. its rated for 160 gallons but we only have 120 we thought it would be better to have be rated for higher than a lower gallonage. Also we are moving from standard lights to something alittle more powerful....a compact becuase the metal halides and some of the others are far 2 expensive for the moment but someday we might do metal halides. just thought I'd post and see what everyone thought. thanks. dave

 

[Aquascaper]

Do you have any live rock in your system at all? If not, remove the trays, etc. from the external filter and fill it to the brim with live rock. It will act as a mini-sump and remove nitrates from the system meaning better water quality.

 

[Lovesfish]

we have 120+ pounds of life rock

 

[Aquascaper]

I personally would recommend using the external with extra live rock as it's a lot of hassle running an external with sponges, etc. due to the increase in nitrates, etc. but it's your call, it will be fine for the size of tank you have.

 

[Lovesfish]

ah well after the canister comes it I won't need the penguin filter anymore and the media inside will grow bacteria so the water will be pushed through pulling out the nitrates helping the liferock remove nitrates.

 

[Aquascaper]

Cannister filters do not remove Nitrates though, they store them and therefore need cleaned. Only Live Rock will complete the Nitrogen cycle, converting Nitrates to Nitrogen which is why I was advocating the use of live rock in the cannister. If the cannister is replacing the Penguin then that's all it is doing - replacing it, it's not really upgrading (apart from volume)

 

[Lovesfish]

ah but if I put live rock into it then it would be making an upgrade becuase then it would be completeting the nitrogen cycle in the canister filter? and how big of chunks of liferock are you talking about putting into it? dave

 

[Aquascaper]

Yeah, by filling it with live rock the water passing through it will be stripped of nitrates and you'll find small bubbles of nitrogen coming up the outflow.
The best idea is to ask around different LFS that sell live rock and see if they can get you live rock 'rubble', this is all the small broken chunks that come in the boxes along with the lovely big bits. It's sometimes a bit cheaper than actual live rock as its not in as much demand. The basic idea is too cram as much live rock into the cannister as possible to increase efficiency.
If you can't get hold of any rubble then it's 'hammer time' on anything you can get hold of

 

[Lovesfish]

do you just leave the liferock in it by itself or would you leave like the sponges that come with it in it as well? thanks for all the help by the way I really appreciate it. dave

 

[Aquascaper]

Just chuck it in as it comes, obviously if theres anything nice stuck to it that can be removed do so but as it will be dark 24/7 in the cannister all photosynthetic stuff will die off leaving just sponges, tunicates, bacteria and worms.

 

[Lovesfish]

but being the live rock peices will be kinda small won't they go up into the tank or no becuase the whole on the canister is 2 small for the rock to fit through. dave

 

[Aquascaper]

Live rock rubble is around 1" pieces or larger so there's no chance of them moving. You could always place a filter pad over the top to be sure if you like.

 

[maestro]

Hello

Leave liverock to do all your filtration, as stated above it does everythign you need, if you biolical media in your filter it will churn out nitrates and the liverock wont be able to keep up meaning a higher nitrate reading.

I would use your external for extra circulation and just put in soem phosphate remover and some carbon, you can put liverock in but if you have enough in your tank then there is not too much point.

 

[Lovesfish]

thanks tons I Think I'll take that advice aquascaper

 

[Aquascaper]

Good luck with it. If you did want to combine Maestro's suggestion of having Phosphate remover and/or Carbon in there then just leave the top 'basket' in there and place in it what you want.

You may find that you'll have to modify the cannister slightly as they work by the water flowing down a tube to the bottom of the cannister where it is then pulled up through the cannister and then back out to the tank. This tube is usually created in sections that are part of the baskets, if you remove the baskets you remove the tube. This will mean that the water will just flow into the top of the cannister and back ut the top again, not reaching down to the bottom. THis is easily solved by attaching a small length of flexible tube to the inlet hole inside the cannister which reaches almost to the bottom of the cannister. That way you maintain the bottom to top flow throught the cannister.