my friend wants a FO without live rock
is this harder at all?
because i know LR is a great biological filter im wondering if its that much harder without it.
thanks
my friend wants a FO without live rock
is this harder at all?
because i know LR is a great biological filter im wondering if its that much harder without it.
thanks
He will have to have some other biological filtration. DSB, or some kind of bio-ball setup in a wet/dry or over the back. Not harder, he just can't have as much of a bioload.
I can't really envision a tank FO or Reef that doesn't have LR though, what does he plan to use for decoration, pastic plants?
I started out that way. I hadn't done any research and was really stupid when I went to the LFS and said I wanted a big salt water tank to go in the family room of our new house. They sold me a very expensive self contained wet-dry system. They had me put a two inch sand bed and about four decorative corals. My original plan was to have somebody come in and take care of the tank once a month. It didn't take me but a few days to realize I was going to become very passionate about this hobby and there was no way I was going to have somebody else come and mess with my tank.
Anyway, to make a long story the slightest bit shorter, it was only a short time before I started adding live rock. Then my nitrates went sky high and I fought with that for several months. Then I was told to go with more live rock and a deep sand bed and slowly remove the bio-balls. So I did all that. The bio-balls have been out for a year now, the nitrates are still off the charts. I totally hate this tank and now I'm in the process of upgrading it from a 100 to a 180-200------my way!
So if your friend has any inclination toward making this hobby an important thing in his life, discourage him from starting with a FO without natural biological filtration (live rock, deep sand bed).
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but it's the thought that counts.
ive tried everything to get him to get live rock
trust me its not going to happen. .
but once he gets his first algae bloom or cyano or something he'll end up giving up because he is too cheap
he's going to be running his tank on a normal filtration (canister filter)
no bio filtration
no DSB
but what can you do. .
Venaman,
You don't need live rock to have a f/o only tank. It might be better to have it but you can have a f/o tank without it. It was that way for years. That is what I have. Yes, I do have plastic plants and a couple of bleached corals for decorations. My tank has a 4 inch plenum. Used to have an Emporer 280 filter until about 3 weeks ago when I put on an HOB skimmer. (didn't have room for both as it is a hex). I have no other filtration, just a couple of power heads for water circulation. I have 4 fish, cleaner shrimp, 5 or 6 snails, couple of hermit crabs and a fighting conch. I've thrown some caulerpa into the tank. I let it stay close to the top clinging to some of my plastic plants. I do regular weekly water changes. My tank is a 45 hex and I've had it set up this way for almost 2 years.
I think if he uses a filter similar to the Emporer that has a biowheel, he won't need much else for biological filtration if he keeps his fish load down.
I think his tank will do fine if he goes slow and keeps up with regular maintenance.
alright thats cool
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