I have now come back to my most favorite hobby after being away for 15 years and I'm very eager to dive deeper. I'm having a dilemia about the what i did then and whats available to me now. Back in the day, I had a 125 gal. FO tank, No live rock, no berlins, no fuges. In the last five months, I have spent at least $400.00 buying books and magazines for some light reading, and i have wore a hole in my mouse pad searching and reading. I used to run an super high flow reverse undergravel that was prefiltered, You could almost see the gravel floating on the bottom. This tank was OVERSTOCKED by many inches of fish. At the end when i had to sell it, i must have had 20 large fish in there. At that time i used a Fluval 203 and a maguum 350. The fluval was packed with alternating layers of chemi-pure and and Real Poly Filters. When people saw this tank, they thought it was fake, because the fish almost appeared to be floating in thin air. the water was so clear. I ran the micron catridge in the maguum. Along with the UGF, i had a six foot tall acriylic tower 8" in dia, filled with the original Dupla Bio-Balls, with a old powerhead to a small drip plate and then pumped out by a matching pump(worked great). To my point, that fish tank ran and ran, through ice storms to no power for three days, to torandos 7/21/89. I rarely lost a fish, and it was sucessful for some six years until i sold it when i relocated. I believe good husbandary skills are by far the most important single item that will make a tank suceed. Now the question, Can i still use my some of my old school ways that have been tested and suceeded on my soon to be new Reefs. I don't see anybody using these products anymore,ChemiPure and poly filters were cutting edge back in the day, and i don't see any products that can clean water better, I'm i missing something?. Having visited and seen hundreds of pet stores over the years (gotta stop whenever i drive by one, I'm worse then a woman in a shoe store), I can say that very few tanks i have visited, few had that sparkle to the water.Any thoughts? 8O
Chemi-Pure and Poly Filter Thoughts
- Thread starter tom6410
- Start date
HA! "Worse than a woman in a shoe store.." 
Most folks don't care to keep most filtration to chemical, but my feeling is if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I'll suggest that you look into refugiums. Know that folks will decry the bioballs in favor of LOTS of live rock - I happen to think that, since nitrification is always necessary, bioballs still have a place and that there's nothing wrong with achieving denitrification and nutrient export via refugia. I also happen to advocate (to those more experienced and/or knowledgeable) going skimmerless with 'fuge (often in conjunction with DSB - deep sand bed). LOTS of argument both ways on that, too!
For that size tank you had, though.. why didn't ya go with a 403?? Jeez! Sounds like you were keeping the water polished with the micron filter - same thing can be done with the diatom filter. That's what had more to do with that sparkling water than anything else, in my opinion (except for water-staining compounds being removed by the Chemipure and PolyFilter).
Essentially, you most certainly CAN use some of your "old school" ways, people forget, fish haven't changed, our technology has.
Most folks don't care to keep most filtration to chemical, but my feeling is if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I'll suggest that you look into refugiums. Know that folks will decry the bioballs in favor of LOTS of live rock - I happen to think that, since nitrification is always necessary, bioballs still have a place and that there's nothing wrong with achieving denitrification and nutrient export via refugia. I also happen to advocate (to those more experienced and/or knowledgeable) going skimmerless with 'fuge (often in conjunction with DSB - deep sand bed). LOTS of argument both ways on that, too!
For that size tank you had, though.. why didn't ya go with a 403?? Jeez! Sounds like you were keeping the water polished with the micron filter - same thing can be done with the diatom filter. That's what had more to do with that sparkling water than anything else, in my opinion (except for water-staining compounds being removed by the Chemipure and PolyFilter).
Essentially, you most certainly CAN use some of your "old school" ways, people forget, fish haven't changed, our technology has.
The 203 was the biggest filter Fluval in the olden days, I'm going to do a Fuge, that's already in the works. I like multiple bio filters to be used, it makes things safer. So my intentions are to have a fuge as i said earlier,with a PM bullet3 skimmer, with 210 pounds of live sand and 280 of live rock. But at the same time, i plan to have atleast one canister with with poly filter and boyds.I also have enough room for another sump set-up as a DSB.
My old lfs used cannister filters to polish the water in their tanks. I had a cannister filter... until my husband broke it. I was so relieved when he did that. There's nothing terribly wrong with cannisters, just that... if you don't want the work of cleaning them out regularly... you probably shouldn't use one. Same goes for bioballs.
I always advise new reefkeepers against cannister filters and bioballs, mainly because I know they don't want the work of cleaning them out on a weekly or bi-weekly basis in the long run. This isn't saying a lot here, I'm still new at this game myself, but I also know myself well enough to admit how lazy I am about cleaning things out like bioballs. If it's a major project, I'll put it off until things explode. I know I'm not alone in that. I'd rather just do my weekly water change and go.
J.
I always advise new reefkeepers against cannister filters and bioballs, mainly because I know they don't want the work of cleaning them out on a weekly or bi-weekly basis in the long run. This isn't saying a lot here, I'm still new at this game myself, but I also know myself well enough to admit how lazy I am about cleaning things out like bioballs. If it's a major project, I'll put it off until things explode. I know I'm not alone in that. I'd rather just do my weekly water change and go.
J.
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