Aquarium Enthusiasts - Need some advice

[ILOVEFRIZZLES]

your tanks are beautiful I have 150 gallon with only two fish in it one oscar and one jack Dempsey (not sure how to spell). oscar will not let anyone else move in lol

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Thank you

I love oscars. I have seen some big ones at the pet stores and their coloring is very beautiful.

 

[Akane]

Personally I like cannister filters. Other saltwater enthusiasts do not for various reasons. They can be nitrate factories if not cleaned often enough or if the tank does not have enough live rock and sand. Live rock and sand will lower nitrates if used in the proper amounts and a good cleanup crew with lots of snails and micro critters in the sand will help eat waste and detritus down to water soluable size. Most of the people really against cannisters are trying to run tanks with minimal water changes and work. These are often dsb (deep sand bed) with large amounts of live rock (minimum 1lb per gallon if not 3 or 4lbs), large clean up crews, small bioloads, no mechanical filtration, massive water movement, and sumps with macroalgae to create a system that basically requires nothing but top offs. I like somewhere in the middle. Some mechanical filtration and some natural filtration to cut down on it.

Both fluval 404s would be about half the water movement you need depending what size tank you go with. A 55 would need another 420gph. A 75 would need another 820gph. Unlike a freshwater tank you want random current in a saltwater tank. In a freshwater tank I'd just put all intakes on one end and all outputs on the other with a large powerhead or 2 pointed down the length of the tank toward the outputs. In a saltwater tank you want the directions of the water to impact and cross. In mine I had 1 large powerhead centered at one end, the spraybar to the cannister at that end blowing across the powerhead spray, the output to my sump in the middle pointed across the powerhead spray so it broke on the front glass and spread in all directions, a small powerhead at the opposite end of the tank hidden behind the rock down low, and then the intake to both cannister and sump at that end in the middle. Lots of movement hitting every direction.

That is if you put in enough live rock. You want the rock to help spread the water flow and break it up so the fish have shelter while still blasting water through the rock and keeping debris from settling out. 1lb per gallon is the approximate minimum for that. Exact amount will depend on the porosity of the rock you are using. Much less than that will not provide shelter or biofiltration so will essentially do nothing for the tank except change the looks. 10-15lbs of cycled rock would be a useful addition to a new tank to help keep down ammonia and nitrite spikes from moving everything. In anything over about 30gallons it probably won't impact water quality long term though and will only increase maintenance from having to keep the debris around it cleaned up.

Have you stopped by any of the forums like http://www.reefcentral.com/ ? That would be a good place to start researching and asking for more of a plan on how fast to move and when to add things. It's been a long time since I maintained a saltwater tank and 2years since I've had more than my planted freshwater 20gallon.

 

[Year of the Rooster]

WOW! Thanks a lot Akane! That info will help immensely. And now that you mentioned it, I think I have seen that site before. Thanks so much.