Re:Filter help

Thank you for the wealth of information you’ve provided. We’re searching for the books you’ve recommended in our local area here in MA.

Our intent is to have a substrate of black live sand and Live Rock stacked in the center/back of the tank. Then have a few tall and short plastic plants as hitching posts on each side of the LR. We thought about keeping the front couple inches clear of obstuctions.

We’ve noticed that we only have two 13 inch openings at the top of the tank for any hanging devices such as filters. This is due to the tank having an inside lenth of 29.5 inches and the top strap in the center.

I’ve noticed that most of the hanging bio wheel filters may not fit, but I like their simplicity. I’ve used those types when I had fresh water tanks years ago.

In the fresh tanks, I used different filter systems. In a 36 gal tank I used an undergravel, with a small Whisper filter inserted in to the tube. It seemed to work good. In that tank, I had an oscar, pacu, large mouth bass and blue gills. Occasionally there would be a few crayfish, minnows and feeder guppies. After a couple years, the oscar, pacu and bass all ended up being about 10-12 inches long. They ate everything else in the tank, naturally.

I wasn’t a very respsonsive owner though. I had 3 tanks. I setup the tanks, fed the residents, cleaned the sponge in the filter and occasionally cleaned the substrate. God definately watches over us fools. No major problems besides ich from the feeder minnows…the treatment ended up killing the pacu, but cured the other two. My brother took the bass when I joined the Army…the oscar survived the drive from Illinois to Florida, but only lived a couple weeks after arrival. That was 19 years ago and haven’t had a tank since.

Ok, that’s the background. Now on to the current.

We’ve read about the Eco Aqualizer and wondered if it would be good to have.

http://www.ecoaqualizer.com/products.htm

We’re looking for an over the edge hanging filter such as a Marineland Penguin 350, or similar hanger that will fit. If we can’t find that type of filter, we’ll have to go with a cansiter. I’m guessing that all cansiters are pretty much the same, so as long as it’s punping 300-400 gph, is this correct?

The skimmers we’ve found that may work for us is the Prizm Deluxe or maybe a Seaclone 100. The Seaclone has a few good comments, as well as bad comments on reviews.

We’ve read about a refugium being a good idea and will hang on the back of the tank. Is this one of those "nice to have" items? Is a refugium able to be used as a hospital/nursery or should that task be in a totally seperate tank? Is a 10 gallon tank suitable as a seperate tank?

Would these items work well together, is it overkill, or not enough?

Oh…what advice is there on using water from our de-himidifier in the basement? Use it or stay away from it? We plan to find water at the LFS if we can’t use the de-humidifier or tap water.

We cleaned the new tank with clean water and a micro fiber rag. The problem is that it still seems like it has a haze of some sorts. This haze is not dust or streaks. If you lick your finger and rub your bare finger on it, it seems to clean. So, what cleaner will be safe to use, inside and outside the tank to really clean it good? (no water in tank yet)

We’ll be leaving on vacation mid week for two weeks. Advisable or not to setup the tank before we leave? Our first thought was to setup and start it before we leave, once we returned, it might be cycling. But then again, we don’t want to have it all setup and have a leak or water problem to deal with upon our return. I think I probably just answered my own question. That must have been your mind mojo working on me. 🙂

Thank you for the assistance and advice.

Wayne and Lisa