out with the old style in with the NEW?

[fairclothg]

I have a 75 gal Reef tank that’s not been doing well. I take it that after reading all the posts on here that the “OLD� style of trickle filters, canister filters shallow sand beds are out. So how about a review and you guys can give me you kindly give me your opinions.
I’ve just rewired my light hood Hamilton with icecaps and they work great, the ballasts are extremely cooler than before.
What I had before.
- About 60 Lbs of “live� rock that has not been the same after my move with about 1 in of “Live� sand.
- Tidepool 2 with bio-rocks in the trays with Ehiem 1260 pump for return to spray bar top of tank.
- 350 canister filter with carbon flowing into Chiller at 77 deg.
- 2 VHO actinic 03 and X2 MH 175 MH 5500.
- Aqua Clear 802 on a spray bard behind LR.
- X1 small power head.
- Seaclone Protein Skimmer.


- Now I’ve removed the Bio-wheel with Bio- rock to be removed soon.
- All filter media removed from 350 canister filter, just used as pump.
- Chiller set at 80 deg.
- Berlin hang on skimmer.
- Same lights, just new ones.
- New Aqua clear power head 901 to lower spray bar.
- Use Aqua clear 802 for water movement.
- 40lbs of new live rock
- 180 Lbs of Pure aragonite sand.
thanks...:rolleyes:

[Entropy]

Originally posted by fairclothg
shallow sand beds are out.

I am using one... Love it.... DSB's are great but ugly as hell IMHO. A good skimmer and a lot of LR should cover it though.

I would swap the 5500 MH bulbs for 10k or at least 6500.


Can you squeeze a sump into your system?

[fairclothg]

Do you mean you have a tide pool 2 and love it?
I have a sump with the Tidepool 2 with the heater, pump in it. not much room after that in the stand i have.

[Entropy]

No, I have a shallow sand bed. About 1.5 inches towards the front of the glass, and about 1 inch in the back. I don't like looking at 6 inches of sand when viewing my tank.


I would go with a AquaC EV90 or EV120 for a skimmer instead of the HOT skimmer. I think you will get much better results. I don't know if you have the room in your sump but maybe you can mount it externally.

[MiddletonMark]

I don't use a DSB, very happy with my minimal substrate.

With enough LR and a very good skimmer [generally rated about 2x your tank size, though for a `good' brand I don't think you need that much] - with these you should be totally fine.

The canister filter and bio-media will do well processing ammonia and nitrite, but do nothing for nitrate. Thus the problem with them. I'd remove them slowly ... one at a time with plenty of time between to give the bacteria on the rock/substrate time to recoup what you removed of bio-media. But this should help a lot.

Water flow, all the water flow you can get.

I'd also recommend looking into RO or RO/DI water for all water top-up/changes. Removes the phosphates and other chemicals in your water - which often do nothing but feed algae in the tank.

But realize that some `new' things may go in-and-out of style too. Like the trickle filters and bio-media went in-and-out; I consider that DSB's will slowly move to a more restricted usage [like in a refugium or sump, where if there becomes any issue it can be removed easily as opposed to at the bottom of your reef]. Probably will become fairly standard in all tanks with sumps or refugia; but I'm not certain that people will use them in their main tank forever. This is just my opinion, and it's heresay in these parts generally, but it's not that uncommon of an opinion [just not heard on DSB threads].

I'm trying a DSB on my second tank, with no sump, in the basement; but I don't want to put my main display/living-room tank in that system as I'm not sold on it.

Perhaps you should buy a newer good aquarium book, I like Eric Borneman's `Aquarium Corals' or Tullock's `Natural Reef Aquariums' ... both go over each system, the history of them all, and tell reasons why and why not to do it. Online it tends to be almost like a religion, where one was is right and all others wrong. Truth is everyone does something a little different; and most ways work for at least some people.

Good luck!