Filtration

Truckie

Truckie

Reefing newb
Hello,

I'm new to saltwater but I have kept a freshwater aquarium for a number of years.
I am looking to set up a 90 gallon fish only/live rock tank. My question is, what would be appropriate filtration for this setup?
I was thinking about turning my old 40gal tank into a sump and using a skimmer and live rock. Would I need anything else?

Thanks!
 
Thanks for the help.

Where is the best place to get live rock? My local fish store sells it, but if my memory serves me correctly the going rate there was around $6/lb. That would be $600 for 100lbs!
I just found the website liverocknreef.com that charges about $56 for 50lbs. It sounds like a good deal, but is it the same quality that I would get at the store?
 
Truckie said:
Thanks for the help.

Where is the best place to get live rock? My local fish store sells it, but if my memory serves me correctly the going rate there was around $6/lb. That would be $600 for 100lbs!
I just found the website liverocknreef.com that charges about $56 for 50lbs. It sounds like a good deal, but is it the same quality that I would get at the store?
Click to expand...

Did u check marcorocks.com? :Cheers:
 
Truckie said:
Thanks for the help.

Where is the best place to get live rock? My local fish store sells it, but if my memory serves me correctly the going rate there was around $6/lb. That would be $600 for 100lbs!
I just found the website liverocknreef.com that charges about $56 for 50lbs. It sounds like a good deal, but is it the same quality that I would get at the store?
Click to expand...

$6 for live rock is actually a great deal. Think about this, if you buy live rock off the internet, you're going to pay A TON for the shipping, it costs a lot of money. It does get expensive, so most people will buy a small amount of live rock and a majority or dry rock to save some money. You'll usually find that dry rock will include free shipping. A good company to get dry rock from is MarcoRocks Aquarium Products
 
Everyone has you covered for a basic setup! Most important thing is to keep doing your water changes! :)
 
Take a look at Aquatic connection. Do a google search for it. Free shipping! I got some of mine from there. Nice stuff and easy to deal with them. I got my Vanuatu rock from them. I have rock from all over though, not just one kind. I wanted a variety and those folks have it.

Fwiw, you don't need all live rock. Get 50 lbs of it and use dry rock for the rest. It will all be live by the time the cycle is over. If you are running a sump, get some small pieces and put some in there too. The more the better! For dry rock I like lace rock. Looks good and is very porous which is a good thing.

What are you going to use for a bed or are you going clear bottom?
 
Hi Truckie!
I got awesome dry rock off of BRS.com, it's cheap, shipping is cheap, it looks cool, and it becomes live. Plus, they have great octopus skimmers on there and you'll get free shipping then. Then you just need some powerheads, a testing kit, salt, r/o water, some sand, and a refractometer.
Welcome to saltwater!
 
Thanks for all of the input guys.

So what you are saying is, if I put dry rock in the tank it will eventually become live?
What is a good percentage of live/dry rock to start off with. I'm in no hurry so I would prefer to do this as economically as possible if I could use more dry rock.

I think I'll put off building a sump for now and just use a hang on back skimmer and the rock. I will probably use some sory of crushed coral for the base. A guy at the LFS advised against fine sand because it is difficult to clean.

Any recommendations for a good HOB skimmer?

Thanks!
 
Actually, you dont want to use crushed coral, it basically becomes a gigantic crap trap which leads to endless water quality issues. Plus if you get any sand shifting fish, it is very damaging to their gills. Just get dry agronite (sp?) sand. Dont get a super fine grain, that will cause dust storms, but just regular sand will save you a million head aches.

Also if you are in no hurry, you can do all dry rock and just one chunk of live rock. It might take awhile to cycle, but that would be the cheapest solution.

And excellent HOB filter are the reef octopus skimmers, get on rated for twice your water volume.
 
Looks like the skimmers are rated for the tank size as well as GPH. Should the tank size rating be double my tank size, or the GPH?
The BH 300 is rated for up to 110gallons with 250gph (more than double my 90gallon). Will this suffice?
 
Im not sure what BH stands for, but you want to go for twice you tank volume, so I would look for something close to the 200 gal range.
 
It's the model number. I guess it stands for back hanging.
So when the manufacturer says their skimmer is "good for tanks up to 90 gallons", it's actually not?
 

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