filtration

[J-P]

I may have the left and right backwards as I can't tell which is in and which is out from the pic.

[vorton]

should i over size the skimmer for the tank ie 130 gallon tank 240 skimmer ?

[J-P]

haha that is the million dollar question......


skimmers are NOT all made equally. There are different pumps and different sizes by different makers that post different results. The short answer is no. You can tweak the skimmer to become more effective, but getting larger skimmer than needed = a larger pump or having a larger skimmer with an inadequate pump etc... = more costs...

get a skimmer that fits the sump.

[vorton]

in the left out is right:)

so to sum it up
chamber 1 inlet live rock
chamber 2 what ever i want
chamber 3 skimmer
chamber 4 return pump

and an effective skimmer = win

where about should i add carbon into the sump in the external or sump

how much live rock should i add in, i dont want to fill the main tank with lots of lr as i want the puffer to be able to have open swimming spaces

[Pufferpunk]

Get the LARGEST skimmer you can fit in there. Be sure it fits...

[vorton]

OK biggest skimmer i can get are there any brands to look out for and are there any to avoid? i was gonna go for a AquaC Romora Protein Skimmer but i cnt find any uk stockists.

How much LR should be placed in the sum system ? i was thinking about 6-8 kg of it in sump and about 10 - 14 in tank .

[Pufferpunk]

Forget the Remora. It's a HOB skimmer for smaller tanks. I have an ASM G-2 under my 90g.

[vorton]

seems like getting a decent skimmer in the uk is a challenge the best i have found at the lfs is TMC V2 800 Skim Protein Skimmer

[Pufferpunk]

Did you look on Ebay?

[vorton]

yeah seems they all aren't great cant find your model on there at all really hard to find a decent skimmer

[vorton]

still not found a decent skimmer .#

do i need to add a clean up crew in my tank and if so what type as most clean up crews i have read about seem to be shrimp and crabs ie puffer food

[jus85411]

clean up crew your pretty much on your own. any shrimp and crabs will be food eventually. you can try some cheap ones, but theres no guarantee they will last very long. i got a hermit crab by accident once that survived my GSP but he did catch hell from him over time, he even made it through two shell switchings. i used to get a couple dozen ghost shrimp to throw in the tank as clean up, but they were also supplemental food for when he wanted to hunt

[vorton]

yeah i kinda guessed that would be the answer i didn't think very much would get the chance to survive with a 8 inch black guinea foul puffer

[jus85411]

i did have luck with nassarius snails(they burrow and are noctural for the most part) but once my puffer learned that there are snails in the substrate he would "dig" for them. he wasnt 100% successful at getting them. if he exposed one they would burrow further, and if they were out when i turned on lights they retreated before the puff woke up

if your looking for less "hands in the tank" maintenance, i had this thing that i loved. i got it mainly because of my bowfront and the hard to reach places, especially how hard a mag-float was to get certain spots. came with a "razor blade" attachment for scraping, a "rake" attachment for substrate raking/cleaning and it came with a velcro-ish adapter that you could stick a sponge on for easy glass cleaning

[vorton]

not so fussed about putting my hands in the tank, just occurred to me i might need one lol . Though after i posted and thought about it, it did seemed a silly thing to post lol as theyd just eat everything.

Just wanna do everything right so its perfect