Hi Just Started A Boyu Tk 550

[heavenly_d3vi1]

it may sound dump but im gonna ask lol whats a power head?

Power heads are like little fans that go in your tank to move the water around. You need movement of the water through your live rock as your rock will be your main biological filtration. They are rated in litres per hour, and you need them to move atleast 20x your tanks total volume per hour. Some of them are known as wavemakers, but essentially the same thing!

 

[fishy55599]

for your tank you need about 2500 lph
so i would get 2 power heads, i got 2 korallia 1's and they are 1600 lph each and do good job

 

[woody88]

Yay! Another TL550 owner!

But it seems that fishy and HD have already filled you in with what you need to know so I'll leave you in there capable hands!

One thing I will say tho. On one of your picks you have a piece of live rock with a considerable amount of cyano bacteria (that red stuff) that is due to lack of oxygen which means there is not enough flow getting around that area.

When you get a powerhead best to mount it on the back wall facing toward the glass at the front as that will give you a good spread of flow around the tank. Then use the spray bar to agitate the water surface as this will help with gas exchange as well as help maintaining your ph.

The UV steriliser is a load of crap so best to remove it completely and run the return pump pipe directly to the spraybar. No modification is required for this just simply unplug the uv from the pipe and spraybar and push the return pipe directly onto the spraybar.

Are you running the existing filter media in the chambers? ie bioballs and ceramic rings. If so then best to remove them as they will become nitrate traps and just run activated carbon and phosphate remover in separate media bags.

Also in chamber 4 under the skimmer you will find a huge piece of filter sponge. This will need removing as that will be caked in detritus. Either rinse it out in plain RO and place it back in or discard it.

I cut mine down to a quarter of the size and placed it in chamber 3.

Good luck with your tank mate. Theyre great little nano's and you'll have loads of fun with it.

Ps - they're very easy to modify/ upgrade components too!

 

[ALW]

Firstly welcome to the Salty Side. I would scrap the any media that is in the filter other than carbon (carbon needs replacing every 3-4 weeks) or rowaphos (rowphos been phosphate remover). I would buy a refractometer next. S.g needs to be between 1.020 and 1.025 so inbetween is fine. You are going to need a couple of powerheads. Something like 2 Koralia nanos would be great, we aim for around 20x turnover an hour. Temp needs to be between 22-26c. Tbh it looks like you might have enought live rock. Could you please weight it? For the Boyu 550 of the top of my head i think you will need around 15kg in total. You will need to buy some test kits, for now you will need ph, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. You can get these in a set for around £30, they arent the most accurate but are good enought for now.

 

[smithy947]

woody88
(The UV steriliser is a load of crap so best to remove it completely and run the return pump pipe directly to the spraybar. No modification is required for this just simply unplug the uv from the pipe and spraybar and push the return pipe directly onto the spraybar.)
how come you dont need a uv steriliser?

as for he power flow i want to my local aquatics warehouse and they r in there between £35-70 rabging rome 400 - 1600 was the biggest. iv found them on ebay 2500 for like £15 will they be the same?
the man in the shop told me not to worry about the ph as i have no fish in there and they will do the tests for me for free wvery week and let me know how the water is.

as its pay day tomorrow im gonna take a trip down to the aquatics warehouse and i pay buy some corral or anemies (sorry carnt spell hope u no what i mean lol) iv only had the tank running a week now will they be ok?

 

[woody88]

Hi mate.

Re UV - uv sterilisation is debatable. Some people swear by it some think it's a load of rubbish that doesn't benefit a tank in the slightest. I'm not gonna go into detail explaining how it works, let's just say I support the latter. What I can say is the stock boyu 550 ones don't do nowt IMO.

Re powerheads. - everyone seems to go for koralia or tunze for powerhead makes. Both are good but both are expensive.
A cheaper option are the aps powerheads (found on amazon and eBay) these babies are cheap but they do a great job. I've actually removed my 2 koralias and use my aps one as it's better IMO.

Lastly don't add any coral or inverts to your tank until you know what your stats are.

Best to let your tank establish or re establish if it has been disturbed before you add any coral. If your new to the salty side of fish keeping then best to research maintaining a marine tank first and later move onto researching corals that you might be interested in.

Have you tested or had the tank water tested by a local fish store yet?
If not then I would make this top of your list mate first.

Post the results in here so we can have a look and then we'll have an idea of where were at.

Cheers mate.

 

[smithy947]

thanks for all the info im gonna get the water checked out tomorrow or sunday and ill post up the results then. i rly need to set up a pay pal so i cen get some bits of the net lol gotta love it for bit like this lol well thanks again for all the info.