Setup recommendations...advice.

[Sub-Mariner]

Ok...I've seen other people do this so I'll give it a try...Here's my setup
29gallon tank, emporer 280, cpr bakpak2r, corallife 130 pc lights, 2 rio powerheads...one 180 one 200 either corner of the tank, Rena top light 100w heater, 30lbs live fiji premium rock, 40 lbs live sand, I've been having algae problems lately which I've posted stuff about...I've been keeping a daily log, I change the filter on the emporer every 2 weeks, clean the emporer out completely once a month. I dose the tank with essential elements and calcium usually once a week. My water parameters are sg:1.024 ph 8.2, 0 nitrites and Amm. Phosphate was 0.2
Nitrates about 5 -10. I do weekly water changes of about 3 to 5 gallons with catalina natural saltwater and top off with natural store bought spring water(DI). Livestock I have 1 lg false perc. 1 med. Green Chromis, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 peppermint shrimp, 2 med hermit crabs...no snails as of yet....ANY advice anyone can give would be much appreciated...I feed the fish daily with f1 flake and frozen every once in a while.

 

[Anonymous]

Have you considered a TDS meter to test your store-bought water...they're fairly inexpensive. If the Emporer has biowheels, that may lead to nitrate buildup down the road...same perhaps with the CPR biomedia. Your bioload isn't bad...is the algae growing all over, or just in dead spots?

 

[Sub-Mariner]

The bakpak2r doesn't have the bio bale like the 2...its supposedly reef ready. Ive thought about taking out the biowheel but it has this water injection thing that gets loud if you take the wheel out..the LFS said take the emporer completely but then what do I do if I need carbon to keep the water clean??

 

[Anonymous]

Gotcha on the BakPak2r.

Can you somehow rig it so the water injection thing isn't so loud?

I wonder if puting carbon in your CPR is an option...?

 

[fishfanatic2]

The bakpak2r doesn't have the bio bale like the 2...its supposedly reef ready. Ive thought about taking out the biowheel but it has this water injection thing that gets loud if you take the wheel out..the LFS said take the emporer completely but then what do I do if I need carbon to keep the water clean??

I have the emperor 280 as well on my 29 gallon and I just yanked the bio-wheel. Then I pointed the spraybar as far back as it can go so that it sprays onto the gray media chamber or close to it. It makes no noise that way, even though it doesn't do anything either. If you point it directly down it makes micro bubbles (and noise), so I wouldn't do that. Mine eventually clogged up except for a few holes since I never bothered to clean the holes.