Emperor 400 or Fluval 305?

GwenInNM

Given a choice, for a high end brackish tank, possibly moving full marine one day - would an Emperor 400 (Marineland) or fluval 305 filter be better for 68 gallon tank?

Thanks

Gwen

onefish2fish

i personally think i would try to run a protein skimmer over a biowheel or canister filter.

wake49

I personally know nothing about Brackish tanks, but prefer the Fluval canisters myself. I don't know if a protein skimmer without live rock and live sand will be as effective...

onefish2fish

im not a brackish water person myself, but heres what im thinking.

im going to guess sand will be present allowing enough surface area for beneficial bacteria to perform the nitrogen cycle. technically a filter ( esp. biowheels ) provide this in their mesh. with the sand and skimmer you would provide your bacteria and remove inorganics without having to worry about keeping the canister filter clean. ofcourse you would still need to do small water changes, but those are required regardless of filtration.
ofcourse i dont know what salinity we are talking here (the poster mentions potientially moving to full marine), what they intend to keep and how they plan on setting up their tank ( half land/water tank? ) as that could effect filter choices.

but to disagree to agree, the canister filter would be my second option. i feel biowheels are best kept to freshwater tanks. if the tiny holes of the sprayers dont clog of salt creep, there may be additional salt creep in general from the spraying.

again, this is just how i think i would approach this.

GwenInNM

So I found someone, getting out of the biz, on CL, and bought 10 lbs of "dead rock" for $3.00 a lb. I'm still not sure I agree with him, that I can just set up my tank with full salinity, and not worry about a mini-cycle (if he gives me a cup of salt water). I'm thinking I'll put my GSP in the larger tank, and keep the salinity the same (1.013) as my filtration is used to, and continue to slowly increase salinity. I still don't have a protein skimmer, and I'm told I don't "need" one, unless I wish to create a tank that is "maintaince free". So, I guess, I'll continue to plug along. I'll go ahead and keep both the fluval 305 and the emperor 400 on the tank. That should be more than enough water flow and filtration. This person will sell me a water circulation thingy that pumps 1000 gsp, when his tanks are all broken down. It seems that may be all I need to run a full marine set up, as a FOWLR. I'm still pretty confused :)

Gwen

P.S. Oh, and I have plenty of crushed coral for my substrate, that I got for free!