bio-load question
 

i have a 55 gallon with a fluval 404, prism hang on skimmer, and 40 lbs. live rock. Would 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 purple firefish, 1 green chromis, 1 cherub angel,1 sand sifting star, 20 snails, 8 astralian algae hermits, and 1 cleaner shrimp be too much of a bioload. i was also thinking of having a few low light soft corals, and mabey a pink starlet coral. any advice would be appreciated.

That bioload will be fine, even with a prizm *COUGH* (preferably upgrade that to a CPR bakpak II or better yet, an AquaC Remora).

You dont have to worry about the cleaner crew adding to the bioload, nor most corals unless you direct feed them.

Clean your Fluval regularly (with a better skimmer, remove it), and do weekly 10% water changes.

If you want to make your prizm better, there are mods out there that increase the skimming performance a lot.

Since all advice even by so called experts is merely opinion, I will add mine. Yes the bioload is fine, but as to changing skimmers, I would say that is unnecessary. Due to the fact that I have run a Fluval for five years, and have never had a skimmer. I would advise the opposite ie. throw the skimmer out, but keep the Fluval clean. Possibly use Chemipure in the Fluval because that is what I do with excellent results. I guess I just like things that work well.:mrgreen:

Bob, would like to hear more about your skimmerless experience, what size tank are you running? Do you run a fuge, if so what is in it? How often do you do water changes? What corals are you keeping? What all do you run in the Fluval besides Chemipure, if anything?

I have run a variety of tanks, the largest was a 75. Right now I have a 33 gallon semi cube. At this time no refugium. I have a variety of soft corals, zoanthids, some LPS and a nice piece of Staghorn. I do almost no water changes. The Fluval only has foams and Chemipure. It works very well with no crash ever.

bob, arent you supposed to change your watter every 4 days with chemi pure , and arent you supposed to change like 30-40% if u use that stuff>?

if i upgrade to a CPR bakpak i can get rid of the fluval 404?

Yes. I ran a CPR BakPak on my 50g for 1 year, and I would say it is my most successful tank to date, although my 180 is coming along slowly.

An AquaC Remora would be even better though, I ran the Pro for 1 year on a 110 gallon.

I run my 37g, 67g and 120g BB tanks without skimmers or sumps. Don't use Chemi-pur or anythink like that to remove whatever those things are designed to remove. Do not run carbon unless there is a problem, which is maybe once every two years. Do weekly maintenance as described on my webpage (link below). Lots of pics, lots and lots of blah, blah, blah ....

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/reeftips...ottomtanks.htm

The only problem not mentioned on the page is that we have is a scum build up in each tank, probably due to the rinsed PE mysis we feed soaked in Kent Zoe and Garlic Xtreme. Easily taken care of by skimming the water's surface weekly with the powerheads off.