Hey...
Thanks a lot..... so what you are saying is that if i have a normal tropical fish filter its going to produce a lot of nitrate? well i have a weird filter system it's one of those that are glued with sylycon in the inside (back) of the tank i guess its the same as the others, right? so would it be better just to buy a skimmer? or not use the filter at all? and 2 more thing what's chlorine, and if i use the skimmer is it necessary to use a sump and if it is how does it work?
Thanks a lot....
Hi David,
You're like I was not so long ago. Marines all sound so confusing at first with all the options - sumps, refugiums, skimmers, biological and chemical filtration, live rock etc.
It sounds like you have a Juwel tank with an internal box that contains a powerhead and the filter media, and the box is siliconed in place. I currently have a filter and a skimmer running on my tank. The filter at least helps to keep the water clearer, so it is of some benefit. But as already mentioned over time it'll need washing in chlorinated water to kill off all bacteria and prevent it from generating excessive nitrates. But nonetheless, that filtering is useful to a) create some flow in the tank, and b) to keep the water clearer of floating debris.
The sump is useful, but by no means necessary. A sump is a separate tank that sits under the tank, and water overflows into an overflow pipe (or overflow box) and into the sump. There's then a powerhead that returns water back into the tank. The benefit of a sump is that a) you are increasing the volume of water you have (as the sump has water in it too) so the water params become more stable. b) you can put all your electrics into the sump and hide them away, b) you can have more elaborate filtering methods, such as using live rock rubble, and macro algae (the algae processes some nitrates). There are also other benefits. But you do not need a sump, or a refugium. A refugium is like a sump that tends to hang on the bank of the tank, it has other benefits but I won't go into them.
Chlorine is put in drinking water to kill bacteria and make it safe for consumption. Normal tap water usually contains other stuff too - small amounts of heavy metals, phosphates (the thing you want to control if you want to keep control of algae in teh tank), and sometimes nitrates. Using dechlorinator will render some of these safe, but getting water produced by a reverse osmosis machine (RO) will mean that 95%+ of those impurities are removed, leaving it very safe for a successful marine tank.
As I mentioned, some do just use dechlorinated tap water that they then mix with salt, but your best bet is to use salted RO water.
If you were willing to do a 25% water change each week, then you may not need a skimmer. But it's worth the added benefit of having one on the tank.
how do i know if my filter (or the filter i get) is adequate
/www.aquatlantis.com/uk-frame-produt...p?id_produto=71
