For sumpless tanks, are Canisters ok?

[Paradox]

I have had many octo-tanks before, but my current tank is a 75 gallon reef. I am trying to convert this tank for small cuttles. (bandenesis). I have a DIY hang on the back refugium with macro, a fluidised media filter with phosban, and a bak pac skimmer. Currently im having hair algae problem and blame it on my sand bed being saturated. My plan is to minimalise everything in the tank. I want to remove much of the live rock and have just a small structure in it. I will also remove the whole sandbed and go barebottom. However, I am concerned that with a cuttle and reduced amount of liverock, that I will not have enough bio-filtration. I still want to keep some corals in the tank...

Will using a Eheim professional wet dry canister filter 2227 be a good choice? Having been in reefs for a while, most people are against canister filters because they eventually make nitrate levels rise.

Would there be problems with this setup?

any comments would be appreciated..

 

[Nancy]

Hi Paradox and welcome to TONMO.com

Cuttles are very messy and also ink. The protein skimmer will be very impportant. We usually recommend having filters and protein skimmer over spec - capable of handing a much larger tank.

Also, I don't think the cuttle would be very happy with a bare glass bottom - they need some sand or at least fine gravel.

Nancy

 

[cthulhu77]

Nancy pegged it...a cuttle will be miserable without some sand !!! Maype try a thin bed (1-2 inches) or at least a patch for them to burrow...
Your proposed setup sounds ok...every tank is different, of course...have you checked your silicate levels? That may be to blame for the hair algae, and you could change out the sand....
greg

 

[Paradox]

Thanks, I realised after i posted that message that cuttles do like to burrow. I can probably do a 1 inch bad and since i will have less liverock, it will make it easier to just keep it clean.

Thanks for the comments !

 

[Swarvegorilla]

Cannisters

I have never really had a problem with cannisters causing nitrates to climb too high. With marine setups you need to clean cannisters more often is all.
Any filter will cause nitrate build up if you let it fill up with mulm. It's nice to not have to bother and ya never want a filter thats too clean but never hurts to do it every 2 months or so.