HOB filter or not?

xtlosx

xtlosx

New member
Hey guys, I'm debating whether or not to get a HUB filter for my 36G tank...

I currently have a HOB skimmer on one side with Chemipure in the media basket, and relying on my 20lbs of liverock to do the biological filtration...

The only thing that drives me nuts is the large particles in the air and nothing to grab that stuff... I don't have room for a sump\fuge as this tank is sitting on top of my desk so the question is, do I bother with the HOB filter, or let the tank clear up on its own?

Any suggestions are appreciated....


Edit: the most frustrating thing is for things like vac'ing the sand, or whenever I do anything in the tank, it takes FOREVER to clear up.
 
fastrc

fastrc

New member
A hob filter isn't a bad thing it will help polish water and filter debris out of your tank,There is no negative to running one.
 
Pufferpunk

Pufferpunk

New member
You really are not supposed to touch your sand bed. Get nassarius snails or a cucumber for that. Your skimmer should clear up the floating debris. If you're looking for mechanical filtration like a sponge, you'll be having to rinse that sponge about 2x/week or your nitrate will go up.
 
xtlosx

xtlosx

New member
I actually, without properly researching it, do have a relatively deep sand bed, it's actually about.. ~2.5" maybe 2.75" at the highest point....... The problem is, the sand just turns a rusty brown color with little mini bubbles on parts of my rock (the start of cyano) and looks like **** unless I vac it.. I use RO\DI water from my LFS.... I have a large cleanup crew of hermits, mini nassarius (might want to get a couple of big snails, XL Nassarius, etc), 2x peppermint shrimp, and 2x emerald crabs.

I just re-did my rock scape last week and took out a bunch of rock that was just overkill and now my tank is cloudy again, so I need to be patient and wait another week or two for the ecosystem to catch up to where it was.. Last time I did work like this in my tank it took a week or two and it came back to crystal clear..

No one is dying in the tank, I have 2x percs, 1x lawnmower blenny, a RBTA, duncans, frogspawn, torch, trumpets, etc, etc, and all is well...

I think my biggest issue is only have about 3-4lbs of good solid live rock that has some wicked coraline on it, and a bunch of porous rock that was more along the lines of base rock.. it's now after 2 months getting spotches of coraline pink, so it is a start, but wondering if I need more killer live rock to get the process going quicker.. thoughts?

Sorry about the rant, I'm just still in a newb state and frustrated :) Patience is not my first virtue, but I am developing it in this lovely hobby.
 
xtlosx

xtlosx

New member
yea, it is stringy and is stuck to rocks, corals, just about everything... really a pain in the ***. it didn't start and really take over until I re-did the rocks and well, took out some of that biological filter........

My guess is in a week or two when things catch up, it will go away... it wasn't there before, not like this at least.
 
fastrc

fastrc

New member
Nothing i found eats it. I had it for about 4 weeks in my tank and all i did was keep taking it out manually and waited it out. It finally all disappeared and never came back,It's a cycle some tanks go through.
 
xtlosx

xtlosx

New member
The tank is only 2 months old, is this just a normal process that the tank goes through before it settles in?

I'm just getting impatient... :)
 
Pufferpunk

Pufferpunk

New member
You are keeping a RBTA in a tank that's only 2 months old? I wouldn't be keeping ANY corals in there yet, until it goes through the NTS (new tank syndrome).
 
xtlosx

xtlosx

New member
Pufferpunk said:
You are keeping a RBTA in a tank that's only 2 months old? I wouldn';t be keeping ANY corals in there yet, until it goes through the NTS (new tank syndrome).
Click to expand...


Sorry, it's 3 months old, and parameters have been stable for a while now... the 'nem has been more than happy so far, I think this **** dino can be attributed to the fact that I changed the entire rock scape last week... patience :)
 
SaylorsReef

SaylorsReef

New member
Tank should be about a year old before you add an anemone. At 3 months, I can assure you it is not mature. Each time you add more live stock your bioload needs to adjust. Anemones don't do well with change.
 
P

P.Olsen

New member
The catch with a HOB filter is they need to be cleaned on a reg basis or they will cause spikes in nitrates due to the collection of food and waste in the filter. Keep changing elements on a needed basis and pull the whole unit a couple times a year to give it a good cleaning. I would go with a HOB skimmer before a filter and if needed you could also do a hang on UV set up for additional water clarity.
 
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