The Puffer Forum

Or does the live rock take care of everything? I know freshwater tanks need them...

I have HOB filters mainly for water movement... Will get fans for both tanks when I can afford them and take the filters off.

All advice is appreciated! I'm more into saltwater now because of the low maintenance thing

I do water changes about every 3 weeks in mine. not major ones but, enough to replace any elements that may be pulled out of the water. I have a few soft corals and LPS though. I typically do them when calcium or magnesium levels fall...or my kH drops.

The protein skimmer and live rock do the heavy lifting in a marine tank. I'd definitely get a skimmer if you don't have one.

Thanks

You definitely need a skimmer with live rock. As said before this is a majority of the filtration/upkeep. As to your first question no it is not nessesary to do water changes but this requires a lot of pre-planning and a decent amount of equipment. There are tank profile done by various reef keeping communist that showcase tanks that have been up and running for 4+ years without ever doing a water change. This is attained by automatic top off of rodi. Dosing calk/alk/mag/trace via metering pumps. Massive skimmers, prefilters, and the key here is a perfectly balanced bioload.

For most of us running more basic setups you can get away with a 30% change every 3 weeks to a month and a half. This will always vary from tank to tank. Once you have been up and running for a while and you get a grasp of how long it takes for excessive nitrate levels to build takes, prompting you to perform a waterchange, and you won't have to test anymore unless you notice odd behavior. Kind of rambling . . . I LOVE salt water. Challenging but so rewarding.

If you want to avoid water changes look into algae scubbers, or algae turf scrubbers. Pretty cool idea.

Thanks for all the info!

It is very rewarding going to full marine with live rock and a skimmer. I'm still seeing amazing things pop out of my live rock, even 6 months later. I just discovered a 3" long mollusk survived the curing and somehow hid up until two weeks ago. I though it was dead but when I went near it to pull it out, it closed up.

Yeah I have an oyster of some kind that was bought as live rock and didn't notice it for a few weeks

It's pretty awesome to shine a red lensed flashlight in there around midnight or so. All kinds of creepy-$@# things.

I'll have to get one! Then I can finally see if those damn pest worms are gone...

Anyone who looks at this: what is the best skimmer? Under $50 if possible...

Your best bet on a skimmer os to buy a used one on Ebay or find a local reef club in your area. Folks always selling stuff off for upgrades or teardowns. I always like the Backpac & usually could find a used one around $50.

+1 I bought 2 "hang on back" skimmers from eBay, One of them a CPR BakPak and one an AquaC Remora. I think I paid 45 and 60 for them, respectively. I started to use the CPR, it worked great. The only problem is that it's footprint was larger than the AquaC and its collection cup seemed smaller. So I switched to the Aqua C but, I'm very comfortable having the CPR as a backup.

That said, I feel like I got more, darker skimmate from the CPR but the AquaC is a little quieter and still pulls a good amount of junk out of the water and I have to dump the cup less often.point

Before I get long winded on reviews, the point is you can get a quality second market skimmer without breaking the bank. The only thing I'd warn you of is that you should be prepared to replace the powerhead, maybe not immediately but, in the near future...you just don't know what kind of shape it is going to be in used.

Posting this to follow the discussion...

Hillehaus, you were right. Didn't take me too long to decide to go marine. Bugger. This is dangerously addicting.

I would recommend the remora if you can find one in your price range. I paid close to 200 for my remora c plus and couldn't be happier. The mag5 shipped with a bad impeller but those pumps are bullet proof. Swapped out and running like a champ.

Thanks for the info people!