Damnit!! Plans have changed........

[Mooch28]

So, ive been struck by them evil fish lords. My plan on building up a seperate 100 gallon with sump, is well...........out the door. Other costs came up unfortanately.

Well, i have not been intimidated, and still have plans to so a saltwater tank.

My plan now, is to turn the 72 gallon Bow into a FOWLR. I can't afford a sump, so ill be using the equipment i have, which goes something like this.......

- Fluval 404 filter rated at 350 GPH. (filled with bio-max, filter floss, carbon)
- Coralife protien skimmer 3002 that will hang on the back of the tank.
- Two Zoomed ventura pumps rated at 270 GPH each
- Two 150 watt heaters
- 2 inch sand bed
- 70 lbs of live rock (fiji)
- Coralife PC fixture (2x55 GE 9325 bulbs, and 2x65 Acnic bulbs), Total 240 watts or 3.3 watts per gallon.

As for maintenace, i'll perform 10% weekly water changes (RO) and at the same time clean out the filter, and replace filter floss as well as carbon. Top of when needed with RO water as well.

Two questions............

1. With that current set-up, and maintenace will it be possible to have zero nitrates in the tank on a constant basis assuming im stocked with fish appropriately, and not over doing it??

2. Will that much light for a FO set-up create algae problems? I do not plan on doing corals, but i allready have the light from when the tank was heavily planted. It may aid in groth of coraline, but i would hate to see things like hair algae. Im assuming though that if nitrates are kept to zero, algae should not be a big problem.

Thanks again guys, some of you have been very helpful thus far!!

[Blinky]

Mooch, this is like looking in a mirror! I just did EXACTLY the same thing - 65g, XP2 canister with bio media, sponges and carbon, two AquaClear 402 powerheads, an Ebo-Jager heater and 3WPG (left off the second fixture as there's no coral going in). I've got 70lbs of Aragonite sand (20lbs is live) and 42lbs of LR from several sources. So far it's working very well for me, so I say go for it! :D
I doubt you'll see 0 NO3 without macro or specialized filter media to use it up, but on a FOWLR it's not crucial - fish are much less sensitive to nitrate than corals. To combat any algae issues I'd use a good-sized cleanup crew with varied snail and crab types. You could also house a herbivorous fish or two (dwarf angel, blenny, maybe a yellow tang) to keep it in check. Give us pics when you start it up :D

[Mooch28]

Mooch, this is like looking in a mirror! I just did EXACTLY the same thing - 65g, XP2 canister with bio media, sponges and carbon, two AquaClear 402 powerheads, an Ebo-Jager heater and 3WPG (left off the second fixture as there's no coral going in). I've got 70lbs of Aragonite sand (20lbs is live) and 42lbs of LR from several sources. So far it's working very well for me, so I say go for it! :D
I doubt you'll see 0 NO3 without macro or specialized filter media to use it up, but on a FOWLR it's not crucial - fish are much less sensitive to nitrate than corals. To combat any algae issues I'd use a good-sized cleanup crew with varied snail and crab types. You could also house a herbivorous fish or two (dwarf angel, blenny, maybe a yellow tang) to keep it in check. Give us pics when you start it up :D


WOW, lol!!! Hey Mooch, is that you?? :D

Seriously, that's great!! Im glad to see it's working well for you. If it works for you, im sure i can do it. By the wa, how much water do you change weekly?? Also, where did you position your powerheads??

Anways, Eventually i'll tempted to try out a few corals here and there in this tank. I already know i will. Any idea what would happen?

By the way, what kind of specialized media are you taking about?? Is it expensive?

[Mooch28]

Any other opinions.

Seems like the freshwater forums hae way more traffic then the salty side here.......

:p:

[OrionGirl]

Lots more people have FW setups. ;)

With 3.3 WPG of PC's, you'll be limited to lower light corals--polyps, non-photosynthetic gorgonians, etc. And, of course, sponges!

My personal preference is to avoid mechanical media. This allows the cleaners access to all the solid wastes, without having to make it into the filters, and means les work in maintenance. Adding the filter to run empty for current is great, as it allows you to option of adding a variety of media as needed, for short time periods.

[Mooch28]

Lots more people have FW setups. ;)

With 3.3 WPG of PC's, you'll be limited to lower light corals--polyps, non-photosynthetic gorgonians, etc. And, of course, sponges!

My personal preference is to avoid mechanical media. This allows the cleaners access to all the solid wastes, without having to make it into the filters, and means les work in maintenance. Adding the filter to run empty for current is great, as it allows you to option of adding a variety of media as needed, for short time periods.

Im a little confused. My fluval has 4 baskets. My plany was to have filter floss in 1, and bio-media in the other three, which i currenty have in my freshtwater set-up.

So are you saying to remove the bio-media?? If so, what would i put in those three extra trays??

Or are you saying i remove the filter floss and just have bio-media??

Or finally, are you saying i have nothing at all??

The filter floss can be changed weekly, so build up would not be a big problem. I can get 20 foot of filter floss for like 10 bucks at big als, that would last me for well over 4-5 months.

[LordsSoilder]

What I think OG was trying to say was,

With a FOWLR tank the LR (live rock) is your bio filter. Once established your rock will become full of all sorts of creatures like pods that will filter your tank for you. Pod's will scavenge larger bits as well a some floating particles while other worms etc will float in the water and catch stuff too. small peices that you dont really see get taken care of by the bacteria and micro organizms. algae's will take care of nutrients as well and then you have your clean up crew of snails, crabs, etc to take care of the rest...

with all that filtration you wont want bio balls etc in my opinion... They take work and they also remove the food for all the fun critters that come out at night. If you don't have a moon light you should try watching your tank when the light comes on and they all are still out... It awesome

Anyway, when you go from filter dependant FW (unless you have crabs snails and plants) then its hard to imagine the tank cleaning itself...

I have an unplanted 55g FW and it's a pain compared to my 55g SW

[OrionGirl]

Bingo.

[Blinky]

LOL when it comes to filtration I think I have issues with 'letting go'. My canister has sponges and bio-media along with the carbon; I figured since my tank is FOWLR a few nitrates wouldn't really matter (and there will likely be macro in the tank sucking it up anyway). Maybe after the holidays I'll invest in some more rock for the tank and just fill the bottom canister basket with LR rubble. A friend of mine has sponges in his canister, they're filled with pods! They eat the detritus on the sponges and provide him with a source of food for the tank. I was hoping this would happen in mine too :)
Mooch, the powerheads are top left and top right corners, each pointed diagonally towards the front. Along with the spraybar from the canister, they create a pretty good amount of flow even near the bottom. I'll add another PH farther down if I need to, but I like having them out of the way if possible.

[Mooch28]

So basically my canister filter become another powerhead.

Well, ive got two different opinions, so i'll try with some filter flows, and see how that goes.

Thanks again guys!!

[Mooch28]

LOL when it comes to filtration I think I have issues with 'letting go'. My canister has sponges and bio-media along with the carbon; I figured since my tank is FOWLR a few nitrates wouldn't really matter (and there will likely be macro in the tank sucking it up anyway). Maybe after the holidays I'll invest in some more rock for the tank and just fill the bottom canister basket with LR rubble. A friend of mine has sponges in his canister, they're filled with pods! They eat the detritus on the sponges and provide him with a source of food for the tank. I was hoping this would happen in mine too :)
Mooch, the powerheads are top left and top right corners, each pointed diagonally towards the front. Along with the spraybar from the canister, they create a pretty good amount of flow even near the bottom. I'll add another PH farther down if I need to, but I like having them out of the way if possible.

Blinky hhow far down from the top of your tank are the powerheads, and are they pointed up??

the reason i ask is, because im planning on using the Carib sea (suger sized) argamax substrate. The last thing i wan't is sand flying all over my tank.