Coral tank filtration

[htz100]

I am working on a large tank for a professor and have twice now had the charcoal filter decide it would be cool to blow out tons of charcoal dust through the tank and turn the water inky black. So we are replacing the charcoal filter. My question is: what should we use instead? I have a large cylindrical filter housing with a mesh bag we can pack with stuff, or replace with a canister of some sort, or we could move in a different direction altogether.

Some facts:
~600 gal
No rocks, no sand, no plants.
Cold water (around 7 Celsius)
5 crabs
Lots of corals (Lophelia)
Sump with bio balls (pending)

 

[Kazarko]

I do not use mechanical filters or activated carbon, live rock is the way to go. It makes a great natural filter for the tank.

 

[Ted]

I am confused how the carbon is getting out of the filter. Is the bag torn? Are you rinsing the carbon before putting in the filter? If it not in a bag have you tried having it in a bag? What type of filter is it? I have a canister filter that the carbon is loose in and I have never had this problem. I have the carbon sandwich in between to filter pads. With no live rock are you using ceramic noodles for bio filtration or something else?

 

[dcantucson]

Maybe you could just use a stronger media bag?

 

[htz100]

Ted, we have no idea why the charcoal is emitting this dust periodically.

The bag is not torn, the charcoal has been washed and washed and washed, we arnt sure why the charcoal is emitting this dust again. The filter bag is ~1/2 mm mesh in an X100 housing packed very tightly with the charcoal. The emitted dust is not visible particles, it presents as ink black water without clumps.

I confess to being new to some of this, but what exactly are living rocks? Are they just rocks from the local environment of the creatures but with living plants. bacteria, etc on them?

We are placing a bag of live algae bio balls in the sump.

 

[Ted]

yes that is precisely what live rock is. How hardy are the corals yall have? I know that you said this was a cold water setup so things might be a little different then what we keep. However corals should still be corals. If you use bio balls they will work great for a while. They will continue to work for you if you clean them every so often, not all at one time but like in thirds. Would be labor intensive. If you dont do that you will end up with hi nitrates and that will kill your corals. A wet dry system is actually to efficient at what it does, converting ammonia to nitrite then that to nitrate. It has no means of getting rid of the nitrate. If you use live rock you have aerobic and anaerobic bacteria so they will balance each other out. If it doesnt then that is what the macro algae is for. Macro algae will eat up the excess nutrients in your water. The live rock, skimmer and a refugium (with macro algae) is what most of us use for filtration in our systems. Their are people that go other routes but it is more labor intensive. I have on my main tank Live rock and a hang on back refugium with a skimmer as part of it. The only deviation I have is a canister filter that has a internal uv sterilizer. I run carbon as needed in it and dont keep any bio material in the unit. The uv is great for controlling problem alage and helps to kill off some parasites. If you need more explanation and cant wait on a answer on this forum look at this website. Its run by Robert Fenner, some consider him the guru of marine fish keeping check it out there is loads of information. I believe he even has a section on cold water tanks. Wetwebmedia, Aquarium, Pond, Marine and Freshwater Fish, reef tanks, and Aquatics Information

 

[htz100]

Ok, I looked up live rock and it was pretty much what I expected. We do not have any, and I would be interested if anyone knew a place that sold some for cold water (7 celsius) tanks. But shouldnt the algae perform a similiar function? I prefer rocks just for the look, but it might be hard to find the right rocks for this environment. The creatures are from seep and vent sites below the light level in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

[Ted]

Looks like you posted just as I was. check out that link I gave you they even have a way to contact them and ask questions. If any one would know it would be him.

 

[htz100]

We ended up simul-posting, but you answered my question anyway, thanks. Ill have a talk with the lab members about finding live rock on the next trip maybe. We do have a skimmer and a UV sterilizer.

 

[Ted]

This might help also it from that site. Cold Set-up