Filtration

[adrian]

CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT FILTRATION IS BETTER FOR A MARINE SETUP. MY LOCAL AQUATIC SHOPS HAVE BOTH GIVEN ME DIFFERENT REASONS FOR FILTRATION. IS IT BEST TO HAVE UNDERGRAVEL OR INTERNAL FILTRATION (ie FLUVAL 2 PLUS ) OR ANY OTHER ?. i HOPE TO SET UP A REEF TANK SO ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED.

[Satchmo]

Niether. Live rock, live sand, and good circulation is all you need. And hit your caps lock, chief. That was painful to read.

[OrionGirl]

Let's look at both options and see.

Assume a reef setup (corals and fish). Low bio-load, high lighting, lots of water movement.

An UGF is going to limit your substrate choices to gravel or crushed coral. Lots of people use crushed coral, a few use gravel. Most people like sand, but can't use it with a UGF--it just settles and clogs the filter. With alrger grained substrate, you have to deal with detritus getting pulled in, and rotting--causing ammonia/nitrites spikes, and higher level of nitrates. With sand and live rock, the detritus stays on the surface, where crabs/shrimp/snails/worms can get to it and break it down. Nitrates can be processed as well.

With a HOB or cannister filter, those same particles get pulled up and stuck in the media (floss, sponges, bio-balls, etc). The detrivore crew can't get to them, so they break down with the same results.

If you have a tank with aggressive fish that would make short work of a clean up crew, it might be worthwhile to have some means of mechanical filtration to help remove the larger solid wastes. However--this means you are going to have to do a lot more maintenance than you would if you could use some of the natural methods--ie, critters.

[Trigger]

I would have to agree. Get yourself a live sand bed of about 3 to 5 inches, quite a bit of live rock and lots of water movement and Bingo you got yourself the Best Filteration you can have.

[jdheff1982]

Would a Magnum 250 running w/o a filter be enough tank circulation???? I am considering starting a marine tank soon. When someone mentioned that water flow needs to be 10 times the size of the tank, I thought about this filter and using it just as a water pump. I will be using a 20 gallon tank. Thanks!

[OrionGirl]

Yes and no...The problem with using a single pump/filter is you run the risk of having dead spots--areas where the water isn't moving. A few small--smallest you can get for a 20--powerheads will help more than one large filter, IMO.