Filtration?

[Triggerdood]

Hello Everyone. New to the site and reefing. Let me start out by saying this is a great site and am glad to be a part of it. I have a few questions about filtration. I have a 40 gallon breeder setup currently. As far as a skimmer goes, I have a CPR Bakpak 2 on the tank, 192 watt Coralife pc and a Rena XP3 cannister. I have around 70 pounds of live rock in the tank. I am wondering about the Rena? Is it ok to use on a reef? I have heard of people only having a skimmer and powerheads? A sump is not in the budget at the moment, will be laid off for the winter soon. I have heard that cannisters are nitrate factories? Would I be better off without it? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[FishBeard]

Nothing wrong with the rena, just keep it clean so detritus doesn't build up and spew nitrates into the tank. The Rena I believe you can use like a reactor, putting media bags of carbon and GFO inside the canister and cheap filter media to floss out particles. It also provides the benefit of additional flow in the display.

The light should be ok to start you out on a shallow reef like the 40 breeder, but you will quickly outgrow the pc lights and want something better when you get into higher light demanding corals. Also keep in mind PC is very inefficient and bulbs need replacing much more often than other lighting systems.

 

[Smitty]

+1 Fishbeard