What filter media should I use?

[Charlie-NY]

I hope to be converting my 46 bow from freshwater to marine this weekend. EVERYTHINK from the freshwater set-up will be removed. Intend to put in some live rock, clown fish (eventually) and some coral/anenomes.

I have 40lbs of agra-live fiji sand on hold at the lfs. I've got a used 2226 Eheim wet/dry coming in. I have a Fluval 304 on hand. I have a small powerhead ready to go and an AquaClear 300 that was running on the original freshwater set-up.

1. What type of media should I be using in the canister filters? Mechanical, bio, chem, or some combination? What about the HOB?

2. Does the live Fiji sand get cleaned before being put into the tank? Does the water in the bag get used or discarded?

3. Can live rock be put in immediately? I'd like to buy a little from the lfs and mail order some nice stuff as soon as the tank is ready.

4. Other than the Instant Ocean salt, what should be added to the water as the tank is opened? Prime, PH adjuster, other?

5. What chemical test kits should I have on hand other that PH, ammonia, nitrate, nitrate and salinity?

6. What temperature should I be using, 80deg?

Thank for the advice - Charlie

[RothChyld]

My 2 cents:

1. When the wet-dry comes in put small pieces of live rock in it versus bio balls. You can double up with the canister but it shouldnt be necessary unless you put a heavy bioload on the tank.

2. I use the water. To be honest you are cycling your tank anyways and you want the critters in there to thrive.

3. Add as much live rock before and after. you can add some now and some later. Some prefer that as they like to get their tank completely cycled before adding more in.

4. If you are referring to the start of your cycle, you can add a cycling product to speed the process up but it is not necessary. I would run the filtration and keep the lights off for about a month until its fully cycled.

5. Alkalinity, Calcium, phosphate, and if you are really wanting to be serious then I would also add iron, iodine, and magnesium.

6. Somewhere between 78 - 82 depending on the livestock. A little hotter isn't that bad as long as the changes are gradual. Mine fluctuates between 80° - 82°.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[deg40]

You do not want to clean the live sand before you put it in the tank, doing so will defeat the purpose of buying it live.

Some people recommend puting at least your base pieces of rock in first so they can sit directly on the glass bottom of your aquarium. This prevents the possibility of animals burrowing through the sand under them and cause rock to fall.

How I handled this was to fill the tank half way with water then to arrange my rock and get my filters and heater etc. where I wanted them, then to add the sand around the rock. If you just dump the sand into water it will be extremely cloudy though. So what I ended up doing was to (I don't know if you are familiar with a beer bong) put a funnel on the end of extra filter tubing and pour wet sand through the funnel and direct it straight to the bottom of the tank to minimize how much would cloud the water. It work very well for me. It did take a few hours to put all of the sand in though...

Just keep in mind with everything "live" that longer that it is out of water or in conditions that aren't optimal potentially less things are going to be "live."

[Charlie-NY]

RothChyld,

I've never heard of using live rock in a canister filter. Doesn't it need light??

Any recommendations on lighting for my intended set-up?

[fsa]

If you plan on having corals/anemones, then you will need lots of light, i.e., metal halide, t-5's, vho's, etc. Not just regular flourescents.

The live rock/live sand is your biological filter. You don't really need those other filters for biological filtering. You can use them for mechanical (physical removal of detritus, etc.) and chemical filtering. But, most people do not use these other filters. If you do, then be sure and remove/clean your filter material quite often (every 2-3 days, certainly no longer than a week or so) to remove the gunk it collects from the water system. Instead of these types of filters, most salt water aquarists use a protein skimmer.

I try to keep my temp at about 78*. Others like it a little higher (80 or so). Buy as much of the rock as you can and put it in to help cycle your tank all at once.

Frank

[deg40]

RothChyld,

I've never heard of using live rock in a canister filter. Doesn't it need light??

Any recommendations on lighting for my intended set-up?


You can use live rock in a canister. Remember with live rock its not the rock that’s alive its things that are not it. The rock itself is just a extremely porous, ie allowing a significant culture of beneficial bacteria. You can keep it a variety places, including in places without light. Its just that in places that don’t have light anything that may have came with the rock (hitchhiker) that needs the light to live will die.

Its not really a matter of what you need to keep the live rock “alive.” At the most basic level all you need to keep it alive (the bacteria) all you need is about the right temp and aerated water, no different than your biological media for a freshwater tank.

It is just if you want the potential for more exotic things to survive on it that may or may not have tagged along for the ride from the ocean to your tank on the rock to survive you need to meet more demanding needs. You never know what will crawl out of or grow off of your rock so if you supply those things you probably will be surprised. If you put the rock in your canister, it will culture a ton of bacteria but like fsa said the rock in the tank should take care of your bio filtration, if you want more – I wouldn’t pay for rock to put in a filter, just use a bio filter media like ceramic, lava rock or seachem’s porous rock.

Dan

[RothChyld]

Sorry Charlie :laugh: I didn't mean to put the LR in your canister but rather the wet-dry you said you were getting in. However, I suppose you can try it in your canister as Deg40 said but I have no experience with that. I only post and answer if its something I have tried.