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Tank renovation - Filtration

Hi again :smile:

I have an aquamedic 1000 multi and I still don't get it... LOL My skimmer only works by drawing water and air through the pump and doesn't have a separate water intake unlike my aquamedic 5000 that has seperates... In thinking about it I don't really see how a 1000 could be worked by overflow at all... is there a different model?

I have a booklet from TMC that is specially designed for working out trickle tower capacities, I'll dig it out and check, I'll try and do that tonight.

choice e gets my vote :smile:

Hi Feelers, was thinking about the scrubbers today at work in a boring training course and actually, the first i seen them used was in an alligator's filter and they lost all their colour in a couple of months. The importer's tanks disaster was about a year later and I will see him on Friday so cant ask more.

I tend to err on the side of caution with plastics used in marine tanks and always recommend them being of food grade quality. That includes not using hair curlers for filters etc too... BUT I always like to be inventive and try new things so would love to know if anyone as used coloured scourers with no problem in a marine tank

cheers
Colin
 
What about a marine environment differs than freshwater that would result in the bleaching of plastics? Surely just the salt isn't to blame. I started using these scrubbies after they were recommended by a resident koi breeder. She has used them in her home-made filters for years, and never mentioned any problems. Granted, koi are a LOT tougher than most salt water species, but some of these breeder koi from Japan aren't so much (kind of comes with the inbreeding). And all of her other water parameters are impeccable, which she demands.

In the marine setups, are the scrubbies exposed to light? I wonder if they are just being naturally bleached by powerful lights from above and the "resultant" deaths were more of a coinsidence. All of my scrubbies still have all their colour after atleast 3 years, however they are in an enclosed filter. Something I do know to look out for when buying these, though, is that some brands come with antibacterial stuff in them so that they don't stink up and grow nasties. I don't think the fishes and friends really care much for that.

Cheers!
 
Colin said:
I have an aquamedic 1000 multi and I still don't get it... LOL My skimmer only works by drawing water and air through the pump and doesn't have a separate water intake unlike my aquamedic 5000 that has seperates... In thinking about it I don't really see how a 1000 could be worked by overflow at all... is there a different model?

There's two different models of the 1000. The Multi is designed for external use and draws everything through the pump. The "classic" 1000 has an intake for overflow water and just uses the needle-wheel motor to "chop" the bubbles.

Dan
 
did you ever think about buying more live rock and adding it to the sump? I have a 125 gallon tank with two 45 gallon rubbermaid sumps. The first one recieves the overflow water and contains 135 lbs of live rock and the TF1000 (used externally). This water flows into the second sump which contains a 6" dsb and two canisters for denytrificatioin purposes. In my cannisters i have a total of ten bags of chemi-pure filter media (removes all nitrates and dosent leach phosphates like carbon).. This set up keeps my tank running perfect with my nitrates and ammonia at 0 and i have a 13 inch octopus (vulgaris i think) with 13 blue chromis & 4 starfish.

anyways my point is that you can either add live rock to the sump or choose the exsternal bioball setup for biological filteration. If choose bio-balls i would deffinately reccomend you use a dsb or CHEMI-PURE because of the high levels of nitrates they release into the water. This chemi-pure stuff really does work like magic and holds true to its name when it says it eliminates the need for water changes. nitrates are not an issue anymore.
 
dont know if i made sense the first time but i meant to say that for biological filteration i would definately reccomend more live rock or the bioball set-up. i would personally never use a cannister for biological filteration. but i would definately use the cannister to house chemical filteration like chemi-pure or carbon. i strongly suggest you use chemi-pure though because it definately eliminates the need for water changes which will save you money if your using synthetic sea salt on such a large tank.
 
I don't think there is anything in the market that can eliminate water changes, yet, at least. Regular water changes are definitely beneficial if not essential to any aquaria.
 
Colin said:
Hi Feelers, was thinking about the scrubbers today at work in a boring training course and actually, the first i seen them used was in an alligator's filter and they lost all their colour in a couple of months. The importer's tanks disaster was about a year later and I will see him on Friday so cant ask more.

I tend to err on the side of caution with plastics used in marine tanks and always recommend them being of food grade quality. That includes not using hair curlers for filters etc too... BUT I always like to be inventive and try new things so would love to know if anyone as used coloured scourers with no problem in a marine tank

cheers
Colin


We season all new stuff in flowing seawater (or off the jetty) for AT LEAST a week! A) can get rid of any chemicals and b) starts a biofilm growing which aids settlement of critters and provides munchies for the grazers.

J
 
If your performing water changes to remove nitrate then chemi-pure does eliminate your need to change the water because it removes all nitrates from the water and dosen't let them leach back into the tank. However, i still perform 15% water changes monthly just to replace any other minerals or beneficial "stuff" that could have possibly evaporated with the salt - just to be on the safe side....
 
:hmm:
I've read some time ago, (not even about to show my age :razz: ) that there was a way to minimize water changes to about 5% a month, and the method was completely natural. I do remember two things, though A) small biological load, but not baren B) one powerhead to circulate water & C) The guy lived in Singapore. I think it was a lot of live rock, compared to tank volume. Just some food for mental stimulation.:bugout:
 
Thanks for that link--truly the quantitative approach I was going for.

I know I'm going to go ahead with a bioball system, right now I just need to determine the specifics of the tower: am I going to have a bucket outside the stand, bucket over the sump, or a glass box built up over part of the sump tank.

A canister will probably come later for the "polish" and "shop-vac" applications. I need to do a bit more brand research on this: If one goes to a place like Reef Central and asks what experience people have had with different brands, you get a bunch of responses that say "don't get a canister filter, just get a lot of live rock and a good skimmer!" Which is a perfectly acceptable answer for a reef. Tell them its going to be ceph or fish-only and people are want to say "skip it and build a reef!" :smile:

Dan
 
Yes, i know what you mean on RC LOL

The first cuttlefish tank I had was made with three holes ate water level on one end. They were 3/4" wide and two out of the three of them went straight into a home made glass tower which started at the same level as the top of the tank. I dont have any pics but here is a (very) rough pic i just made in Paint...

It did mean that the sump was out the bottom of the tank but wasnt really noticed as i made the cabinet too, so it hid it ok.

It was something like that... the tank was 72x 18 tall by 30 wide and about 200gals including water in the sump.
there was a good prefilter of filter wool and pad then a drip tray to spread water over the media
the tower was approx 40inches tall and 8"by 8"

hope the pic makes sense
 

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...hmmm trying to attach the pic :/

 

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Thanks Colin.

That's really close to what I'm thinking. My "tower" will probably only be a 5-gallon bucket underneath the overflow sitting on a small table or another bucket, directly next to the stand. The sump will be inside the stand, but I'm thinking about a bulkhead on the bottom of the tower and a pipe that goes into the stand and sump. This setup would have very little, if any, standing water inside the tower.

Dan
 
...souns ideal, from memory my tower had about 4 - 6 inches of water at the bottom.

cheers
 

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