Hi y'all

mike43067

New Member
I've posted a few times. Typical stupid beginner questions. Things are coming along well so far. Lovin' my new reef hobby and spending too much money. Thanks for all your help!
 

ReefLady

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Hi Mike and welcome!

A couple of things about your setup you might want to rethink:

First, the Emperor 400. Unless you’re carrying a heavy bioload (lots of fish) you should probably ditch this. The live rock will provide adequate biological filtration, making the emperor redundant. Furthermore, the biowheel can actually cause nitrates to build up in your system. If you DO plan on a heavy bioload (not recommended for beginners) then you should get more live rock and still ditch the emperor.

Second, the bright sun-lit room will probably do you more harm than good. Your good critters won’t get much benefit from it, and direct sunlight is often to blame for excessive algae problems.

Just thought I’d throw that out there. :)

Travis
 

mike43067

New Member
suggestions

Thanks for the input Travis.
I've heard that about the Biowheels being nitrate factories before. What if I just ditch the Biowheels and keep the mechanical filtration going? Are nitrates really such a problem? I'd like to get some aquatic plants which would utilize the nitrates.
As for the sunlight. When my tank was freshwater, I'd cover it occasionally with a towel to knock down the algae. That seemed to work. The algae I'm getting now isn't a problem. In fact it's kind of decorative on the rocks. Yellowish in color.
Thanks again.
 

Woodstock

The Wand Geek was here. ;)
RS STAFF
Do whatever it takes to keep the nitrates below 10 ppm.... zero to 5 ppm is the goal. Removing diterus, useing a good skimmer, keeping a low bioload, not overfeeding, and doing regular water changes is the key. If you keep all filters rinsed and clean every couple of days you would be ok....but having dirty bioballs, biowheels, sponges, etc.... only allows for the diterus to stay trapped and breakdown via the nitrogen cycle which ofcourse results in nitrAtes. HTH
 
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