Minimum equipment....

[Jrambo88]

I'm throwing around the idea of upgrading the tank I have from a 38 to a 75. Currently all I have is a canister which I run floss, chemi pure blue, GFO mixed with rox carbon (I know redundant) there is 3 koralia power heads that are 425 gph I believe. There is 40lbs of live sand 45lbs of live rock. Now if I upgrade to th 75 I still want to stay skimmer less and sumpless because it's at work and don't want all that extra equipment running (more stuff to go wrong) it's FOWLR. So my question is who runs a system around this size with minimum equipment? I'm keeping the stocking list low. Who thinks I'm heading for disaster and who thinks it'll be ok?

[Clownfish Chris]

I personally wouldn't run floss in a canister. It becomes a nitrate sink and is a mess to change. I would replace that with ceramic filter media and keep everything else. Ceramic doesn't need to be cleaned other than a quick rinse every once in a while. Up the amount of live rock and sand to around 80lbs each and you should be golden!

[Jrambo88]

Well I change the floss every fourth day, I keep it only on one of the trays. So you just think I double the sand and LR and probably get a stronger power head or two and everything will be fine?

[Clownfish Chris]

I think so. It is the Nitrifying bacteria that do the work. The trick is to give them enough surface area to have a high enough population to keep the ammonia and nitrites in check. That is the point in the ceramic, LR, and LS. Keep up on water changes and you have nothing to worry about imho.

[Dan_P]

I'm throwing around the idea of upgrading the tank I have from a 38 to a 75. Currently all I have is a canister which I run floss, chemi pure blue, GFO mixed with rox carbon (I know redundant) there is 3 koralia power heads that are 425 gph I believe. There is 40lbs of live sand 45lbs of live rock. Now if I upgrade to th 75 I still want to stay skimmer less and sumpless because it's at work and don't want all that extra equipment running (more stuff to go wrong) it's FOWLR. So my question is who runs a system around this size with minimum equipment? I'm keeping the stocking list low. Who thinks I'm heading for disaster and who thinks it'll be ok?

Should work if you are scaling up the capacity of the filtration equipment. And if you are careful with stocking, you are ensuring your success. You are only doubling the volume. Hard to see how you could be getting into trouble.

[jamesamantha]

Probably want to have a decent size water change each week...maybe 10%