Is This Enough Filtration?

[ReefJeffG]

Hello Reefers,

Being new to the hobby, I have a question regarding my filtration on my 50 gal reef. I have an aquaclear 70 and a protein skimmer. Water flow consists of 4 powerheads randomly placed with a wavemaker (3 on wavemaker, 1 continuosly). I have T-5 lighting.

My question mainly is, whats a good filter media for the aquaclear 70? Right now it has about a 4" thick sponge on the bottom followed by a package of powder ( not sure what it is really, it is an established tank and it was already setup). Could anyone reccommend or attach a link to what would be a good media for the aquaclear? Or any other ideas for me would be appreciated as always.

Thank you,

ReffJeffG

[Sugar Magnolia]

When I ran my AC 70 I used a bag of carbon, a bag of GFO (phosphate removing media) and a polyfilter. I placed the carbon and GFO on top of each other then placed the polyfilter in front of both of them where the return flows into the tank.

And...



To Reef Central

[Michael]

50-70 pounds of live rock and 1500 gallons of flow from powerheads an hour is just fine for your 50 gallon tank, it sounds as if your flow is taken care of so just get some rock now

[bmiller1234]

Welcome to the addiction....

I personally would ditch everything in the aquaclear. Maybe just take it completely off. I ran a hob filter in my first tank but tossed some carbon in a filter bag when needed. Mechanical filtration in reef tanks is always a gamble. That 4" sponge is a huge detrius trap and will become a nitrate factory unless your cleaning it daily.

The beauty of a reef tank is its now able to be almost totally biological filtered. Let the rock and sand filter naturally. Get a good clean up crew and with running a skimmer and regular water changes it will take care of itself.

as most will day if its not broke don't fix it but I feel no need for any type of hang in filter. If you want to use it with some loose filter media like carbon or a phospahte remover which is probably what is the white powder bag you have now then continue but unless you have a real bad particle problem that's not skimming out ditch the sponge.

Good luck

[gweston]

I have a small 29gal semi-nano running right now with an Aquaclear 50 without a skimmer. My 125gal is being built right now.

I agree with what the others are saying. The skimmer is perfect and you can probably ditch the Aquaclear. However it can have it's uses for running carbon/gfo. Some have even converted them into budget refugiums which is an awesome mod for them.

What I have found with the Aquaclear is that the waterfall affect it produces introduces a lot of microbubbles into the tank. It bothers the heck out of me when I see my fish swimming through the microbubbles.

The plan in my case..

-add a skimmer (CPR backpack model)
-continue to use the AC50 with carbon/gfo for now, but likely make it into a fuge later
-I use a homebrew hang in tank chaeto basket for the moment.
-tune down the AC50 to minimum flow. That should help reduce the microbubbles (I hope).

If the bubble issue isn't resolved by reducing it's flow (the AC series are somewhat adjustable). Then I'll just take it out of the tank. It will work nicely for a quarantine/hospital tank when one needs to be called into service.

[troyman]

pura complete since your space is limited its a good product

[Reverend Reefer]

i didnt notice how much live rock you have. in reef keeping, most would say lots of live rock is your best bet for filtration, along with a good skimmer, is probably the basics. maybe a deep sand bed too. i dont think you will gain much filtration from power filters like the AC and think you will gain more biological filtration power from lots of live rock.

[Ston3]

1+ for fuge mod or for carbon and/or phosban

[Paul B]

Put the Aquaclear on your shelf as a paperweight or use it occasionally with carbon. Don't use it with any other media unless it is temporilary for a few hours. You don't need a filter for a salt water tank.