After a lot of reading about filters

[ncompany]

I currently have a 55 long, been set up over a year now. Orange tail damsel, firefish goby and coral beauty, sand siffting star snails and crabs. recently upgraded lights to current nova extreme pro and add a r/o d/i unit to the mix. I have read that most of us don't run filters. I have about 70 pounds of live rock in the tank. Nitrate level has been as low as 5 but can't get them to go away. Should I start to take things out of the filter slowly and just use it as more turnover? I have two aquaclear 50 powerheads. Gives me 540 turnover. Then the filter is supposed to have a 260 turnover rate. Do I need more flow? Currently in the process of a 30 gallon sump. Have the sump trying to get the money for the overflow and return pump. Does anyone have any suggestions? I do weekly 20% water changes and clean the filter everytime as well.

[Reefscape]

Nitrate levels of 5 are nothing to worry about, in my opinion. With you ammount of live rock, yes, you could slowly remove the media and use the filter just for additional flow...

Flow wise, depends on what type of tank it is, as you dont mention whether its a reef system ( or heading in that direction )..If it is / to be a reef, then you want to aim for about 1375 gph flow.....

I would also just drop your water changes down to 10% per week....keep the maintenance going on the filter media untill you decide to stand it down as a filter..

Just an opinion of course :)

[ncompany]

Headed in the direction of a reef tank. When I do get the sump up and running and the two powerheads I have would that be enough flow or would I need to upgrade them as well? i will be using a 1200 gallon per hour dual bulkhead overflow box and undecided on the return pump.

[Reefscape]

varying opinions here really..Personaly, i dont include the return flow value when calculating tank circulation, i base the 25x gph circulation value just on powerhead devices in the tank...

[ncompany]

So I would definetly nedd to upgrade the powerheads. I would love to have some hydor koralia's. By the flow rate that you gave me I would need a 2 and a 3. that would give me a rate of 1450. Would the three look to big in the tank?

[Reefscape]

They dont look that big in tank, to me anyways...most people tend to hide them from view with rock et cetra....

[ncompany]

Well at least I know what I'll be getting into. thanks for all of the help.

[archer772]

There will be alot of opinions here also but I would only go for about 300-400 gph thru your sump and then add 2 Koralia 3's for your flow

[ncompany]

The Guy at the lfs that made my sump has me going with the 1200 overflow. I have two one inch bulkheads allready drilled in the sump.