Best form of filtration to meet my needs - opinions wanted

[Teresa]

Hey all,

I've got my 24 gallon Cardiff aquarium up and running with lots of gorgonians. I really want to start a continuous feed system and keep more nps corals, but this means hosting high nutrients. I know this means I should do more water changes, but I'm also trying to figure out if I want to add a sump, canister filter, reactor, etc., to help keep parameters in normal range. Right now I have a mini turf scrubber, refugium, purigen, and carbon within the aio filtration section of the Cardiff. I have a Marineland 350 Canister filter with a Poret filter foam modification (

http://www.thewatersnake.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1798). After reading Hydro's post about fluidized sand filters, I've been wondering if that's something that would work. I'm also thinking of adding a sump that is 20-30 gallons to essentially double the volume of water. I used to have the stock protein skimmer, but after reading the low amount of nutrient export, plus the fact that my gorgonians need the microscopic bacteria and nutrients that may be removed, I decided to take out the skimmer (plus it never pulled much anyway). Thoughts - opinions???

[Timfish]

Big plus on adding a bigger sump/refugium. It would seem to me a 20 or 30 gallon refugium like you are thinking of would take care of you biological filtration plus generate food for your gorgonians. Fluidized filter beds are good for providing a lot of surface area for nitifiying bacteria in a small space. Even without a refugium I would think you have plenty of bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrate. The issue is going to be getting rid of nitrate and phosphate in which case I think your idea of an additional refugium would better serve your goals.

[subsea]

Teresa, both Michael and I use high nuitriant systems. I also think that it would be benificial for your gorgonians. In an abscure way algae refugiums produce a type of phytoplankton called epilets (? sp) http://www.reefland.com/articles/rho/best-plants-and-algae-for-refugia-part-II-vegetable-filters

In my opinion, the nitrate conversion in this backflow sandbed is not beneficial. The amonnia would have grown plants and macro much better. I also believe that the combination of a mud filter with a vegatable filter is the best possible source of food to feed your gorgonians. You may even want to consider putting your refugium above your Gorgonian Display. With an overflow gravity feed, no damage to live food from pump impellars.

http://www.ronshimek.com/deep_sand_beds.html

Doctor Ron will give a name to those wiggly things.

Enjoy,

Patrick

[Teresa]

Thanks for the feedback thus far . I'm still researching and welcome all ideas!

[+KimP]

I think a lot of the heavy nps tanks, especially the ones that continuous feed, all have an oversized gfo reactor. That would be a must have for me if I was going to do something like this. Whatever foods you go with are going to dump tons of po4 in your tank. I also agree on the sump. You'll have to do a build thread or something when you get it all set up! I'm fascinated with nps tanks sounds like you're already off to a good start.

[subsea]

With respect to phosphate export, Calurpae has the highest ratio of phosphate to nitrate uptake. It depends on which cultivare you select. Most macros uptake 100/1 nitrate/phosphate. Fast growing Calurpaes uptake 20/1 nitrate /phosphate. If your phyto/zoaplankton generators output is too much you will get a phytobloom in your display. Moderate to light stocking levels would assist you with upkeep. As a thought, I would consier using a cannistar or power filter with phosphate removing resins.

Patrick

PS I used a continuous drip from a zoaplankton generator output with a float valve on input water from tank. My zooplankton generator was above the refugium and drip feed into refugium, which then pumped food into display tank. Anthony Calfo and I are in disagreement at where to install a UV sterilizer. He felt it needed to protect the display tank, I feel that if used at all, the UVsterilizer should be installed on nutriant input (display tank water) to phytoplankton generators to prevent contaimination in the phyto culture. Both points have merit. So maybe get two UV sterilizers or then again, don't use them at all. There are multiple ways to deal with biological needs of these systems.