live rock

[twistedimage92]

i seen a protein skimmer with a powerhead attached... can i pump the powerhead up to the protein skimmer (above the tank) then from the skimmer through the foam and then from the foam to main sump (with alge later) then out of the sump to the main tank. who makes a good skimmer?

 

[wayne]

Yes, but you'll end up with not very much flow thro' your sump, which may or may not be a good thing. I prefer a fair bit now, but anything is possible.

Which skimmer is a good question. Skimmers come in a couple of types, and so you really need to decide yes or no to a sump. You can get a straight HOB (hang on back one) if you don't get a sump. If you have a sump an insump one is usually better value for money as they don't need to be so fancy shaped as HOB's.
There are some very, very poor performers on the market right now. A good skimmer like an AquaC remora (HOB) or Urchin (insump) is going to run you a couple of hundred dollars US. If you don't want to spend that sort of meney I would suggest you DON'T buy a piece of underperforming junk (like a seaclone or prism) but rather shop secondhand (you'll need to hunt around online, but they are there) or keep on saving. Buying a bad skimmer because it's cheap is a false economy.

 

[wayne]

And whatever skimmer you choose, becaue you're going to want to pump up to your sump you'll need to oversize the pump a bit to make sure it's doing enough work.

 

[twistedimage92]

ok well i am going to order a 900 GPH aquaclear to pump water up to the filters, through them then into the sump with the insump protein skimmer... then from the sump back to the tank...

 

[twistedimage92]

i take that back. my uncle in law's friend has a proclear 150 wet/dry filter system with the overflow and everything. he is going to sell it to me for like 200 bucks... it is brand new... is this a good deal? the way the overflow works is really cool, the syphen cannot go dry because the one from the back tank to the wet dry is lower in the water than the pipe going to the wet/dry so it will hold water in it if the power goes out... awsome peice of work... he said he has a ca2200 or somthing like that but he is not sure how much... i seen the proclear unit go for like 300 on some pages...

 

[KahluaZzZ]

good against ammonia...but if you wanna get rid of nitrates, don't get it.
The bio-balls harbor nitrifying bacteria...so you'll get nitrates 4 sure

 

[wayne]

As Kahluazz says, they're awesome at removing ammonia, but you get stuck with the nitrate and it's inevitable problems.

You can always get it, and jsut it as a glorified sump I suppose, but it's not a cheap way to do it. Also I can assure you that the syphon can go dry....

 

[KahluaZzZ]

twistedimage92 , i tested with bio-balls and without. Got 30 ppm nitrate with bio-balls ( blue balls in the wet/dry ), then 5, now 0 on salifert test.