A question concerning filters and such... (1 Viewer)

[Abe77901]

I've had my system up and running for about a year now, I have a 55 gallon with chiller, prizim skimmer, emperor 400 filter, 4 power heads, 95 lbs live lock. and 5 small fish. Everything is running beautiful, my question now is my lfs has told me to take the emperor off and skimmer, he says the live rock and powerheads is enough. Is this true, or why mess with something has been running so good......his biggest this is that the emperor is nothing more than a nitrate maker, and the skimmer is just stripping the trace minerals out....I do WEEKLY 20% water changes, what in your opinion is the best solution, would it be ok to remove the emperor?????

 

[Niko5]

I would keep the skimmer...

Do you have a Nitrate problem? If not why mess with something thats working

 

[Guest]

If you maintain the filter, it'll work as it should. It's when you let it get nasty and never clean it or replace the filter media that it turns into a nitrate factory. If you do weekly water changes, you probably don't need a skimmer. Skimmers don't really remove trace elements. I say if it ain't broke don't fix it. Just change the filter media on a regular basis and you'll be fine. If it makes you feel better, only run the skimmer every other week.

 

[rxonco]

I have an emporer 400 and a 280 along with a skimmer on my 72gal tank and I never have any problems with nitrate.

 

[SeanB]

If you're nitrates are low, then what cause would you have to take his advice?

It is better to have too much filtration than not enough. I've heard the advice about the bio-wheel b/4, but I can't believe he actually recommended taking out your protein skimmer. If you hadn't bought one yet, I could somewhat see his point of view, but it makes no sense whatsovever to take it out of an established tank.

With a weekly 20% water change, you are adding plenty of trace minerals back in anyway.

I would definitley get a second opinion before trusting any of that person's advice.

As far as removing the Emperor, if your nitrates start getting high, you can always remove the bio-wheel, but I'd leave the filter in anyway just for circulation, and adding carbon when you need it.

 

[Guest]

i need help with my nitrate as well. What i currently have is 100lbs LR, sump, emperor filter 5 fish,, i feed moderatly once or twice a day and yet my nitrate is at 80 ppm. I do water change once a wk about 10 % and clean my filter media. Sshould i turn off my emperor 330????

 

[Guest]

Step up your water changes to start with - 10% isn't going to do much. At that rate, it will take 21 water changes to get your nitrates below 10 ppm, and that's if nothing else is adding nitrates during that time.

OTOH, step up to 25% water changes, and you get to 10 ppm with 8 water changes. I would do one every other day for the next couple weeks to get it under control, and in the meantime work at figuring out what caused the spike.

 

[SeanB]

Yaoming713,
Take out your bio-wheel but leave the filter running. Are you using a protein skimmer? If not, I would look into one.