Trying to avoid a sump...

mdcorcoran · 10-07-2006, 05:35 PM

Hello,
My tank is 4 years old and over the years, it has been moved from 10-20-37 and now it is in a 55g. I have a 250 20K XM light.

I am in medical school and live in an apartment and move just about once/year, so I want to avoid building a sump.

For filtration, I currently have a 2 Litte Fishies PhosBan reactor, CPR BakPak2, and Emperor 280.

I believe my PO4 to be high because of my hair algae problem. I am considering adding a canister filter such as a Fluval 405. (Ebay, $110).

Opinions?

thanks

Fly Guy · 10-07-2006, 05:44 PM

I must say its vice versa on the hair algae. Your hair algae exists becasue of a phosphate problem.

How much live rock do you have?? How is your tank stocked and how/how much do you feed??? How do you achieve flow in your tank??

Save your money on the fluval. It is pointless and unecessary in a reef tank(im assuming we are talking about a reef tank anyway). The emporer as well is unecessary, and possibly a cause of some of your problems. The phosban reactor can serve a useful purpose for either running phosban or carbon at times...... A sump is not necessary either to fix things, but we need to know a little more about your system.

DevilBoy · 10-07-2006, 05:45 PM

i would not do it. Canister filters are useless, all they are good for is to use as extra flow. Your skimmer imo is too small for your 55g. I have a cpr bakpak 2 on my 46g and it has trouble keeping up. So i would look into a bigger skimmer before buying a canister filter. The canister filters will just start leachin stuff back into your tank.

DevilBoy · 10-07-2006, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

I must say its vice versa on the hair algae. Your hair algae exists becasue of a phosphate problem.

How much live rock do you have?? How is your tank stocked and how/how much do you feed??? How do you achieve flow in your tank??

Save your money on the fluval. It is pointless and unecesary in a reef tank(im assuming we are talking about a reef tank anyway). The emporer as well is unecessary, and possibly a cause of some of your problems. A sump is not necessary either to fix things, but we need to know a little more about your system.

yea what he said, sorry i type slow

Phishnoob · 10-07-2006, 05:52 PM

Ditch the filters, keep maybe 75lb of LR and use an Aqua C Remora Pro with a Mag 3. It is perfect for my 55g and I am just maintaining a humble bachelor pad that may not see me for a day or two between pirate trips.

mdcorcoran · 10-07-2006, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

I must say its vice versa on the hair algae. Your hair algae exists becasue of a phosphate problem.

How much live rock do you have?? How is your tank stocked and how/how much do you feed??? How do you achieve flow in your tank??)

I have roughly 60 lbs of live rock. A handful of LPS including a frogspawn, hammer, few candy corals. Some zoanthid polyps and mushrooms and a small african tree soft coral.

Only fish right now are a starry blenny and an orange tail damsel. I have a coral banded shrimp and I have been without a cleaning crew for about 10 months. I just added 24 hermits and 24 snails last weekend.

When you said " its vice versa on the hair algae. Your hair algae exists becasue of a phosphate problem", do you mean that I have low PO4? I think it's high and I use Phosban.

Fly Guy · 10-07-2006, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdcorcoran

I have roughly 60 lbs of live rock. A handful of LPS including a frogspawn, hammer, few candy corals. Some zoanthid polyps and mushrooms and a small african tree soft coral.

Only fish right now are a starry blenny and an orange tail damsel. I have a coral banded shrimp and I have been without a cleaning crew for about 10 months. I just added 24 hermits and 24 snails last weekend.

When you said " its vice versa on the hair algae. Your hair algae exists becasue of a phosphate problem", do you mean that I have low PO4? I think it's high and I use Phosban.

No, i meant that you have a high phosphate issue that can allow the HA to grow. Your stocking ratio seems fine. How often do you feed and what?? Do you have a phosphate test....preferrably Salifert??? Do you use RO/DI water??
Lets just say for example you didnt use RO/DI water, and the water you did use was high in phosphate to begin with, that phosban reactor probably wont be able to take enough out of the water column to stop the hair algae from growing. A accurate phosphate reading woudl be good to know, although we can assume it exists due to the simple fact that the HA is growing. Has your recently added clean up crew seemed to help anything??

mdcorcoran · 10-07-2006, 06:08 PM

I do use RO/DI water. I feed about twice a week with frozen brine. I do not have a phosphate test, but as you noted, assume it is present because of the HA. I think it's probably too soon to see much of a difference from the clean up crew, but I think one of the reasons it is so messy is that I had nothing for so long.

Fly Guy · 10-07-2006, 06:18 PM

I would simply drop the emporer altogether, look into getting a Salifert phosphate test kit, rinse that frozen food vbefore putting it in the tank...you will lose a signifigant amount of it doing this but there is a ton of phosphates in the binder and preservatives they use........change your phosban every few weeks and see if things improve. Skimming very wet wouldnt hurt either.

good luck : )

ps- when you get that phosphate kit, make sure to test your ro/di water before adding it to the tank.........make sure your ro/di is working

pastina · 10-07-2006, 06:24 PM

on my 55g i have 70 lbs live rock, prizm skimmer and a supreme hob filter.
i use a phosphate remover twice a month that i leave in the filter for 2 days then i throw it away
i have zero nitrates and never seen hair algae in my life
i also feed my fish flakes twice a day, i do water changes 10% monthly and use RO water only
not sure if this will help but it proves a sump isnt needed and my tank is very low maintainance

tdwyatt · 10-07-2006, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

I must say its vice versa on the hair algae. Your hair algae exists becasue of a phosphate problem... ...Save your money on the fluval. It is pointless and unecessary in a reef tank(im assuming we are talking about a reef tank anyway). The emporer as well is unecessary, and possibly a cause of some of your problems. The phosban reactor can serve a useful purpose for either running phosban or carbon at times...... A sump is not necessary either to fix things, but we need to know a little more about your system.

I agree on the filters, and might add that increasing your system volume and available rock will give you more leeway in those momentary lapses of reason when you decide that husbandry of the system can wait a week or so when your stuydying for finals... In addition, the sump CAN act as a settling tank depending on set up, and this will make it easier to siphon out detrital junk if you're short on time.

Trust me on this one.

BLEEZY · 10-07-2006, 11:37 PM

what tom says

do not feed frozen brine, feed mysis, brine shouldnt ever be the staple diet of fish, it doesnt have the nesecary lipids and amino acids they need.
a sump will be helpful and save time and money, they can be fairly simple.
although as proven many times are not nexecary. a big skimmer running very wet, low feeding, frequent large wc's are all you need.growing macroalgae in a container in your main display and routinely harvesting it is always great and cheap. just get some cheatomorpha or other macro algae, put in under your lights, away from corals, and let it grow, then harvest it to remove the nutrients they absorb. i reccomend sphaghetti cheatomorpha or caulerpa as they are fast growing but not too invasive or hard to harvest.
good luck with med school!

mdcorcoran · 10-11-2006, 10:48 PM

thank you all for your advice. I just purchased an Aqua C Remora Pro with Mag 3. Should be here on friday or Saturday (yay!). When it comes, I will probably use the Rio attached to my CPR to add some circulation, I think I could use a lot more, and I am planning on building a CLS. Looks fun, easy, and very benifical.

I love you guys,
I don't know what I would do if I didn't get 10 responses in as many minutes on this forum for any post.

REEFSTOCK · 10-12-2006, 12:19 AM

Are you able to make your own RO in your living situation? one bucket can do a LOT of waterchanges for a 55. 20g change once a week would go a long way!

mdcorcoran · 10-12-2006, 12:44 AM

I buy RO water from the Culligan machine at the Super Wal-Mart across the street. It's only 25 cents/gallon, and 75% of the time they don't charge me for it.