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Tank renovation - Filtration

DHyslop

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I'm redoing my 75. I'm not sure the best way to go about it. It has ~50 lbs of live rock in it and I'll be using a TF1000 needle wheel skimmer.

I know the live rock and skimmer won't be enough to handle a 1+ lb bimac, so my decision is bioballs vs canister.

I must say I'm leaning toward bioballs because of cost. I have the tank for the sump and everything in hand, so the balls are mighty attractive(cheap on ebay following the live rock revolution!).

I see most people here use canister filters, so I'm a bit uncertain. I would naturally assume the bioballs have a greater nitrifying capacity.

I've seen people say divide your tank volume by 10 or 20 to determine how much bioballs you need: 5 gallons would put me right in the middle.

So I drew up these diagrams of two bioball options. A standard 5 gallon bucket is used for the chamber. Note I've drawn an external horizontal overflow, that's not set in stone but it would make escape-proofing easier.

Let me know what everyone thinks. Should I go with one of these or bite the bullet with a canister?

Dan

75gallon2he.gif
 
While more bulky and unattractive, your second design is going to give you a lot more filtering capacity, as well as easier maintenance.
That being said, I have never cared for BB's at all, and much prefer a canister filter.:yinyang:

greg
 
Are you keen to run a dsb in your sump?

Nice diagrams btw - very professional :grin:

Just a note on the bioballs - nylon pot scrubbers have more surface area and have good flow.
scrubbies.jpg

I'm gonna use these in my cannister - oh and about the cf - have a look for the Jebao 918 ~80usd - cheap cheap cheap, and pretty good from what I can tell, although I havent had mine for long.
 
It seems the strong concensus is canister filter. It would let me run the 'fuge, too. I know that Colin uses bioballs, but he's not here to defend himself :) I can't remember it being stated explicitely, but don't Nancy and Carol use canisters, too? Another reason I had been looking at the bioballs is the DIY aspect is more fun than the BIY (buy it yourself).

I was looking at canisters on eBay and saw some reasonable prices. Now I need to jump head first into researching the brands and seeing what's good and what's not. Brands aside, what size of a filter is reasonable for a bimac tank? There seems to be a price jump above ~350 gph.

Just when I think I've got it all paid for they pull me back in.

Dan :smile:
 
I am a huge magnet drive fan...but others hate them. Have been using the Rainbow Lifeguard systems, and Magnum 330's for decades, and they still work like new.
Eheim seems to be the industry standard, but the scuttlebutt on the west coast is ranking "cascade" filters pretty high.
I would avoid Fluvals, never did care for the siphon starting !


greg
 
Feelers-- I personally believe the concept of a dsb is robust, however I don't think it would be useful here. I believe this refugium would be too small to be worth it, especially given the nitrogen load of the system. Also, I will be moving in two years, and I don't want to have to worry about the sand bed.

Greg--I'm surprised at your endorsement of Magnums. I wasn't giving them serious consideration due to Marineland's reputation for cheap equipment. They're certainly inexpensive. I'm also eyeing up a used Cascade 1500 that I'm pretty exciting about. Do you know anything about Jebo filters? They're pretty cheap, look rather generic, but I can't seem to find much info on them at RC.

Dan
 
Nancy uses wet/dry with bioballs, but has a Fluval on her 19 gallon invertebrate tank! I believe that Carol uses a canister.

About the DSB - bear in mind that your octopus may dig in it, may even create large holes in it right down to the glass.

About those nylon pot scrubbers - haven't been able to find them anywhere for years (and I'm looking for them as pot scrubbers! :smile: )
Where do you get them?

Nancy
 
Thanks for that info, Nancy!

I could go either way at this point--it will probably depend on how cheap I can find a good, used canister. If bio-balls can support a monster like Ollie it makes me feel a lot better if I end up going that route!

Dan
 
I had some problem at her peak, before she laid eggs, but I had no idea when I got her that my tank wouldn't be big enough (I believe its a 47 gallong and she needed a 75 or 100 gallon tank.) So I had to do a lot of water changes at one point, but when she did lay eggs, she continued eating, but less.... so it evened out. We haven't had such big - or long lived- octos since then.

I was talking with someone at the NRCC who told me that, when they keep bimacs over time, some become dominant bimacs and they grow much larger than the others. I think Ollie was a dominant bimac, although we knew of a couple of other large ones that year, too. Maybe the breeding stock that Octopets uses just tends to smaller bimacs.

Nancy
 
Nancy said:
Nancy uses wet/dry with bioballs, but has a Fluval on her 19 gallon invertebrate tank! I believe that Carol uses a canister.

About the DSB - bear in mind that your octopus may dig in it, may even create large holes in it right down to the glass.

About those nylon pot scrubbers - haven't been able to find them anywhere for years (and I'm looking for them as pot scrubbers! :smile: )
Where do you get them?

Nancy

I think in NZ you can get them in the supermarket!!

J
 
hehe, i don't need to defend myself or bioballs... each to their own

BUT if you want a large filter suitable for nitrification purposes then go with a trickle tower :) Their surface area far outweighs what a canister can offer. I think canisters have their place but only in a chemical or mechanical environment, best leave biological filtration and nitrification to bioballs and live rock.

Why not all the methods if you can? Belt and braces so to speak?

I don't quite follow the pipe leading from the skimmer and the tower and canister? Looks like the pipe follows into the venturi?

I would try and get all water from the overflow into the skimmer first, that is the most efficient way of skimming

never use those coloured scourers in marine tanks as their dye leaches out of them pretty quickly... been there and seen in happen in a wholesalers. Mysterious mass deaths got blamed on the scourers.

so, to summarize...

use a canister to catch suckers and physical waste
use a canister for adding carbon or rowaphos etc
use a trickle tower for excellent surface area and efficient nitrifying capabilities
use a good prefilter for a trickle tower
put overflow water into a skimmer before all else if possible
a skimmer after the trickle tower also isn't a bad idea to re-oxygenate the water
A refugium isn't really too necessary in an octopus tank as after it gets a certain size there is nothing in the main tank to eat amphipods etc.

hope this helps a bit

cheers
Colin
 
Nancy said:
About those nylon pot scrubbers - haven't been able to find them anywhere for years (and I'm looking for them as pot scrubbers! :smile: ) Where do you get them?

Here in Canada, you can usually get 6 for a buck at a dollar store. Thats how I got mine for my pond filters. Remember to cut the one end and unwinde them when you use them.

Cheers!
 
Choice e) all of the above :smile:

The Turboflotor's input hole is only about 1.5 cm across. Since the skimmer is designed to be gravity fed from the overflow, it can only handle about 100-150 gph of the total (300-400 gph) through the sump, so I can't do it in series which I know is ideal. My plan then was to have two pipes coming out of the overflow, the first (the bulk of the flow) into the tower and the remainder into the skimmer.

Colin, what do you think of my tower size? Do you think 5 US gallons of bioballs is about right for a 75g with a bimac?

Dan
 
Hey Dan on the cf thing, can you get Jebao(not Jebo-different brand) filters in the US? The one I have is 1200lph, ummm 317Gph, brand new was about $80 us. Even with shipping it would still be cheapish - and this has one of those pumps too so no siphoning is needed. Its great!



Colin thats interesting on the nylon scrubbers - I have read that they are totally inert, perhaps there are some without the dye?
 
Feelers said:
Colin thats interesting on the nylon scrubbers - I have read that they are totally inert, perhaps there are some without the dye?

How about Bio Bale? I saw some at a website, and they have a LOT of stuff! I once built a 4 ft. tall skimmer that was too efficient fo my tank, using stuff I had ordered from them, just a bit I picked up along the way. http://aquaticeco.com

Happy cephing!

Homer Simpson, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone!"
Rod Flanders, "Got 'em daddy!"

circa middle of the last beer.
 

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