Question about filtration

[jon'sreef1977]

Hi, I am not new to saltwater aquariums but I am new to reef aqauriums and need some help. I've established a brand new 55 gallon system and have already introduced my live rock and allowed it to sit for three months now. I haven't put any fish or any invertabrates into the tank yet. I have a marineland T-5 lighting system and want to start introducing a few fish, a janitor crew, and maybe some small soft corals to start. I wanted to establish a berlin system but was wondering if some form of outside filtration is still necessary? Sadly, due to current space constraints, a sump is out for the moment.

Would a hang on refugium or reverse photosynthesis system along with a con-current protein skimmer allow for enough extra filtration?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[sir_dudeguy]

[welcome]

yes, a skimmer would be good to have (if its a good brand...stay away from seaclones and prizms, and the cheap ones). I had an aqua c remora on my old 55 and it was great. If i were to set up another 55 (which i probably wont cuz they're hard to do rockwork with) i'd probably get another remora skimmer.

For HOB refugium...great idea, but i would not spend all the money that those name brand ones cost. I cant think of the names offhand, but they're like 200 bucks. Its ridiculous. I just get the Aquaclear HOB filters and dont put any media in it. Then i just put live sand, rock rubble, and a ball of chaeto alga and it does the same thing those other expensive ones do for less than half the price. I think the biggest AC filter is 70 bucks (i think that was in stores too tho) and you could find it cheaper on the selling forum here for sure. So thats 70 bucks tops compared to 200 bucks.

hope this helps, and welcome to RC :)