Which do I get??? I NEED help please!!! :D

dani_starr

dani_starr

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Aug 6, 2011
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Dani :)
YAY this site is FINALLY working!! I need major help now! I ended up buying a 55 gallon with stand, that has lots of dry rock and a dry crushed coral/sand substrate, AND LIGHTS (along with misc stuff like a hydrometer, salt, nets, big plastic gloves, syringes, testing kits, etc.)!!! They are 2 Coralife 10000K 65 watt bulbs, and then 2 Coralife actinic 65 watt bulbs, and the blue lights are amazing and same with the white light. It was $350, with $50 for delivery. Only problem is it has NO skimmer or good filter (a Whisper 60 external power filter, which I am giving to my bfs parents for their fancy goldfish 55 gal, they have NO filter :( ) And here are two I have been looking at, which should I get?

1) Amiracle Wet Dry Filter with skimmer $40 http://fortcollins.craigslist.org/pet/2510690572.html

2) OR AquaC Remora Pro Protein Skimmer w/ skimmer box and Rio pump - $180

http://fortcollins.craigslist.org/for/2483989388.html


Please answer so I can email the people and let them know I want it so it wont get sold to someone else! :)
 
Also, I got three different types of dry rock. Some that is white that has sea shells and stuff in it, but then there is some that is red and REALLY light and looks almost plasticy in the back in one place and then another piece that is really heavy (wondering if it is lava rock?), and then a few pieces that are a purpley color, and EXTREMELY light weight as well. Are these fake? Safe for aquarium use? They all have salt residue and little dried barnacles(?) on them as well. I've been looking everything up, and nothing looks like it.
 
Umm you want to do coral or FOWLR?
I do like the remora because it works better but the wet dry is good though looks like its missing a few parts in the picture. It looks like a cpr backpack so I'm going to use my expierence with those.
but i think you'd be better off with a CPR backpack /w skimmer and a couple of koralia nanos and 1's. Since the sand is dry, I recommend getting at least a 20lb bag of live sand and maybe some additional bacteria supplement like nite out II or other brand. You do also need to buy live rock (your red rock is probably dead pipe organ coral) as they contain beneficial bacteria in cleaning the tank.
 
Oh sorry, in all my excitement I forgot to post details on what tank I wanted. Oops. I want to do a FOWLR tank, and I am planning to get live sand (probably around 30lbs) and some live rock (prob around 30+ lbs too), for bacteria/cycling/filtration purposes. I'm just trying to figure out what all the dry stuff is first. (And save my money, ;) So there are different solid colors of dry rock, and some is really light weight (lighter then my remote for a piece the size of a football almost) for the dark purple and one of the darker reds, while the rest is heavy, like I expected?

And so for the filter/skimmer, I should try to find a different one rather then either of those, correct?

Thanks and sorry if my post is confusing!

And I looked up the pipe organ coral, do you mean like this? http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Bali-red-pipe-organ.jpg it looks NOWHERE like that. It's a single shade, dark red, very similiar to lava rock for one large piece, and really heavy, and another piece is a single shade, darker red, and is extremely lightweight, similiar to the purple pieces. I'll try to post pics :)
 
With the wet dry you will need an overflow and a return pump of some kind to move water to and from the display tank. If it were me, I would invest in a sump, a good return pump and some good powerheads for flow (although you may have trouble finding a good size tank you can fit under a 55 gallon stand due to the shallow width of the tank). If you can fit a sump, you can get by without a skimmer for a while or maybe even get away without one at all depending on the animals you want to keep and how hard you are willing to work to keep the tank clean. Also in-sump skimmer typically outperform HOB skimmers. The other investment I would make before a skimmer is a RO/DI filter for you water supply unless you have a source for good quality RO/DI such as your LFS. Just be sure the water source is as close to zero TDS as possible.

For flow with powerheads I personally feel that you will want more flow than what Koralia nanos and Koralia 1's would provide unless you add several which will clutter the look of the display. The Koralia 1's, 2's, 3's, etc, have been phased out and replaced with Korailia Evolutions. If you end up going with Koralias I would recommend 2 x Evolution 1050's or 1 x 1050 + 1 x 75. Tunze is a much better powerhead than Koralia so if you can swing it go for them. There are other options as well such as maxi-jets and vortechs. Just depends on what you are willing to spend.

Congrats on the new tank! Look forward to seeing a build thread.

Edit: Just saw your post about going FOWLR. That being the case I would definitely just go with a sump and save for a good in-sump skimmer. Water changes will keep things in check along with a bag of carbon and GFO or something like Chemipure Elite for now. What you want now is good water to mix your salt with and good flow. Again, you will also need an overflow of some kind like an eshopps or better yet, drill the tank and buy/make your own overflow. You can certainly get a HOB skimmer but in the long run you will be glad you went with a sump down the road.

Your purple rock could be lava rock (in which case I would not use it), dead green star polyps or rock that was previously encrusted with coraline algae (not a bad thing). Light and porous is a good thing as it typically means more surface area for bacteria to colonize and easier for water to flow through.
 
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Wow...I am waaaay more clueless then I thought. I'm gonna go do a lot more research on filters, because I am pretty confused right now, is there anyway I could just have an in tank filter/skimmer or something and not drill any holes in the tank, or have a separate tank underneath, or anything like that? I'll write more later, lots of reading I'm going to do now.
 
Would need better pics of the sump to say 100% for sure, but from the description you wouldn't need all that for it. It appears to be a HOB setup. Pump pushes water into the sump which overflows into the tank, basically like a freshwater HOB filter. Here is the thing there though. It'll be small. Big compared to a HOB filter, but small compared to a standard sump. The skimmer probably won't cut it for your size tank either. For the price it isn't horrible, just that you'd probably end up replacing it in the future.

You'll more likely want powerheads right now. Worry about the skimmer later on.


If you wanted a sump (separate tank underneath) you don't need to drill the main tank, but it is easier in the long run. You can build an overflow box (google if you want directions) or a PVC overflow (again, google) instead. They can be a little tricky to get going at first (dialing in the system to make it stable and not sound like a bathtub draining) but once running they are very safe. Looks-wise though and failsafe-wise, nothing really beats drilling. I built a PVC overflow for my new refugium (a 20L under the display tank) mainly because drilling a tank that was while it was set up and running was pretty scary (and the fact that I think my tank's glass could eat a drillbit or two :rofl:). Cost less then $100 for tank, pump, and PVC (although the pump was underpowered since it was a refugium instead of a sump).
 
Here are some in-tank skimmers you can get but a HOB skimmer likely would do just as well...

http://www.tunze.com/149.html?&L=1&C=00&user_tunzeprod_pi1%5Bpredid%5D=-infoxunter028

In-sump skimmers don't have to be as compact and can be "uglier" :) which usually gives you better performance and a lot more options. Here is some info on sumps...

http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

Essentially the live rock and sand will handle the bilogical filtration. The part you will need help with is exporting nitrates through water changes, etc. Skimming does not remove nitrates. It removes proteins before they start to breakdown eventually leading to increased nutrients (including nitrates). As long as you have good quality mix water, do water changes (recommend weekly 10 to 20% to stay on top of things), have good water flow through and over the rocks and stock your tank moderately and not too fast you will be fine with a mid-size FOWLR tank. Adding a skimmer down the road will give you some added buffer. Of course you may want to run some carbon, etc as mentioned before to help polish the water.

The other big benefit of a sump is just the addition of more water volume which aids in dilution of nutrients and added stability of the entire system.
 
Hmm okay. I talked to the guy, it is a hang on the back type. Is there a specific model/brand that is either in tank or HOB that you would recommend? And same with powerheads, what brand/type should I get? I'm not really good with DIY stuff, especially with drilling and stuff like that. I am looking for something that you set up, then you can forget about for the most part, I am really busy now with starting college and all the chem and bio homework, along with working at least 20 hours a week, so I don't want to worry about baby sitting it like I've heard for some. Sorry about all the newbie questions. :confused:
 
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