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Home      Reply		Viewed: 389 -- Replies: 9
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Posted	New Set Up
10-10-2006 08:53 by Hooleye	Hello, I am after some advise on 2 issues with a marine new tank set up. I have a Juwel Rio 240 tank which comes with an internal filter, I also have a separate Eheim ecco canister filter. Should I 'load up' a particular type of media in the internal filter? I am aware that live rock should be my main filter system, but after reading various posts on the forum I am going to opt for a fix of both. My second question is relating to ocean rock: How long will it take for ocean rock to become live? Does it need to be mixed with live rock for a period of time? or am would I be wasting my time with this line of thinking? I am intending the tank to be reef & fish. Thanks for the advice !!
10-10-2006 09:37 by PaddyD	Personally I would Recommend you use live rock for your main biological filteration and not use the external. this is because: 1) it will do the job by itself 2) Using an extermal filter will actually produce nitrates (external filters cannot reduce nitrate) which will have to be removed by your living rock. So by using an external filter you hamper the efficiency of the live rock. So I would use one of your other filters to house chemical media like carbon and phosphate remover. I use the internal jewel filter for this as it is so easy to emove. In addition, go for a good size protein skimmer and make sure you have enough flow in the tank (approx 2500 lph should be ok) Regarding ocean rock, I feel that it would take such a long time to become live, that by the time it is particularly useful, your tank should not need extra filteration, better off biting the bullet and going for a suitible amount of live rock - approx 20KG for your tank.
10-10-2006 10:23 by Alan	This is the best option to go for for hassle free reef keeping. At least 26 kilos of hi grade cured live rock such as that available from www.stm-shop.co.uk. Stream pumps to turnover at least a total of 4,800 litres per hour or more a couple of seio stream pumps will do it. A skimmer go for a hang on to maximise space I have heard good reports about the TMC V2Skim the smallest model will be sufficient. I would suggest you run the eheim ecco with no filter media and rig up a UV sterilizer such as a vecton V2, again as made by TMC. As far as the juwel internal leave it in there but remove all of the madia and jutst use it as a place to put a bag of rowaphos in. Lighting wise I would upgrade the lighting using an arcadia I bar the standard flourescent starter plus the I bar (T5) should be sufficient for soft coral with low light demands. Pussey corals and leathers as well as button polyps and mushrooms should be happy with that. Make sure you bin the current juwel flourescent tubes as they are probably for tropical and will be totally wrong for marine. I would go for blue actinic T8s and for the I bar go for marine whites. With the live rock and the skimmer you will need no other filtration as paddyd says live rock does best on its own or with other ecosystem methods. My reef runs on live rock an airdriven skimmer (not very efficient but it removes the worst of it and aids gas exchange) plus a Deep sand bed with an integrated algae scrubber my nitrates are 0 ppm. I used to run it with an external canister and I could never get nitrates below 25 ppm and had an algae problem of an epic scale. Other vital stock would be grazers these all form part of the vital filtration for the tank I ould suggest about 40 reef safe hermits and a similar number of turbo snails. substrate should be a thin layer of live sand really no more than to give a 1-2cm depth and inch at most.
10-10-2006 10:27 by robinaero	I use an eheim external filter in my 240 jewel and a prism skimmer (yeah I know not the best skimmer in the world!) and it does the job for me, I have 0ppm Nitrates.
10-10-2006 10:34 by Alan	Forget the ocean rock it just takes up valuable space that would be better served by being just water. Everything that goes in to a reef tank has to be for a purpose otherwise it has no place and ocean rock has no place in a reef tank.
10-10-2006 11:55 by Hooleye	Thanks for the advise. A few other items that I have failed to mention are a Red Sea Prism Skimmer, Sulphur Nitrate Filter, T5 Lights and a Vecton UV15. From the advice given I assume then I should have the Eheim pump running to support the UV15 & Nitrate filter but with no media involved? Then place Carbon, Phosphate, Nitrate media in the internal filter? Ditch the ocean rock and bite the bullet with 22kilo of live rock? Is that about right?
10-10-2006 13:38 by yanton	I would recommend you use the ecco at least until the system is matured, to help out with nitrite and amonia handling. Live rock is of course much superior to ocean rock. dont put any fish in until the water smells sweet and tests show high quality water. Dont forget , DO NOT use any copper medications if you want to keep any inverts.
11-10-2006 09:31 by Alan	If using live rock you won't need the sulphur nitrate filter at all and these can be fiddly to set up and if you get it wrong you will suffer a wipe out. Do not use the ecco to mature the system it is pointless the live rock you use must be cured and going for live rock means you bypass the nasty side of the maturation process i.e. the ammonia and nitrite spike but you should expect slightly elevated nitrate levels of about 5-10 ppm for a few weeks at most. Having said that you must be sure of the quality of the live rock hence my suggestion of www.stm-shop.co.uk you need to go for the pink stuff. You won't get an instantly fully matured set up but in theory you could put a fish in the next day with no problems. However, after setting it up leave it running for 2 weeks with out any fish in there that will give micro organisms a chance to settle in readiness for the addition of fish I would suggest a good first fish as being either a pyjama wrasse or a tank bred clown fish don't fall into the damsel trap.
11-10-2006 11:47 by Hooleye	Should I not use the ecco (without media) to flow UV steriliser? If I was to set up the sulphur nitrate filter at the beginning would this not benefit me later on in the set up? As I stated earlier should I fill the internal filter with carbon, phosphate & nitrate media? When can the live rock be added to a filled system? I intend to take my time with the initial set up and I am in no hurry to fill the tank with fish / corals until I am happy I have the correct environment. Sorry for so many questions, but I want to proceed after assessing as much informaton / opinion as possible.
11-10-2006 13:17 by Alan	It is best if all the live rock goes in in one hit. It can go in as soon as the salt water is in the set up and all salt has been disolved. The ecco can be used but I would say with no media at all (that is what I meant when I said do not use the ecco to mature the system)it would be far easier to put the phosphate remover in the juwel filter as you will be able to change it easily as far as carbon goes I do not like it in a reef full time as it strips out beneficial nutrients. Nitrate media and a sulphur denitrator should be totally unneccesary on a live rock system as nitrates should remain negligable the live rock will handle it all, it is a difficult step to take though I am guessing you are moving over from tropical were equipment and more equipment is the norm for a succesful trop tank this is a challenge to over come but the modern reef does not involve any artificial filtration aside from the skimmer and chemical media as it is simply an obstacle and makes managable nitrates an impossible dream in the long run. If you want to talk to a shop about your plans try Sevenoaks Tropical Marine they will be able to advise far better than me and plus they are the best supplier of live rock in the country.

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