Help, please

[fishytime]

Describe please for us what is in these trays....most setups these days have little to no mechanical filtration. Bioballs, sponges etc. can quickly saturate with debris and leach nitrates back into the system. Also I imagine that a herd of horses like you have require quite a bit of food to keep them happy. Do you have a skimmer? If so, what kind and what size tank is it rated for?

[animallover]

Thank you all sooooo much for responding! This is how I love to learn--from others experiences and knowledge. I DO have a skimmer, but I only run it three nights a week, as it seems my one male horse keeps getting pouch emphysema if I run it longer or more than that. The skimmer is an in sump skimmer and it says it is a Marineland MSPS100--this is what manager of Big Al's suggested for my 55g tank. My tank was aquired last November, so the tank pumps and hoses and such were already wired up. I can't find any info on the pumps (brand, size, etc. I will try my best to describe my tank set-up. Here goes......My sump has two pumps with hoses going up into my tank--these hoses bring the water up into the tank. I have a hanging filter on the back of my tank going most of the way into the tank water. I have a filter in this that I clean weekly. The water is cycled from this filter down into the top of the sump and drains into the four tray filters. As the water drains through the trays, it pours over and turns the aeration wheel. On the other side of this is where I have the two pumps, my skimmer and my heater. I do realize that this is a more primitive set up but I still love it and it's what I know. So far. By looking at Marc's AMAZING tank set up, I have a loooong way to go, lol. One day at a time, eh? At the risk of sounding totally inept, is this tray style filter system called "mechanical filter"? The top three trays have a stiffer pourous kind of batton that I cut to fit the trays, and the bottom tray is perforated to allow the water to fall over the aeration wheel. (God, I hope this makes sense to anyone besides me). And how often should I be changing these filters, and do I change them all at once or do I do one per week to keep the media going? I was told it was not good to change these tray filters all at the same time, correct or no? I can't think of what other info to give as it is getting quite late and I keep nodding off, lol. Thanks to all!

[Pescador]

Sounds like a Marineland Tidal Pool maybe looks like this?
http://www.aquariumguys.com/tidepool.html
I'm not that familiar with them but hopefully someone on here has some tips on modding it.
Do you have much live rock?
I'm thinking the trays and wheel might have to go and maybe an upgrade for your skimmer.

[fishytime]

+1 on the above advice....sounds like what you have is quite the nitrate factory..... wet dry filters and sumps are great for fresh water setups....not so much for salt

[animallover]

Hi again!
Brian, the link you sent me on the sump is EXACTLY what I have. I;m not sure I understand, why should I get rid of the trays and wheel, and why get rid of skimmer (any suggestions as to what to get?) I wouldn't have a clue as to where to go from here to replace my sump system? I was told at one LFS that most find it hard to get their nitrate levels below 40-50ppm? He felt that since most of my parameters are good that my nitrates being at 20-30 was good. Because I'm quite new at this, I tend to believe what people in the business tell me. So if this info is bunk, I wouldn't know. You guys are scaring me a bit by telling me to get rid of my sump setup. I honestly don't know where to go from here. Thank you all again, as I truly appreciate the advice. Thanks to "fishytime" for taking your extra time with me!
PS I have about 20-25 pounds of live rock

[animallover]

Hi again!
Brian, the link you sent me on the sump is EXACTLY what I have. I;m not sure I understand, why should I get rid of the trays and wheel, and why get rid of skimmer (any suggestions as to what to get?) I wouldn't have a clue as to where to go from here to replace my sump system? I was told at one LFS that most find it hard to get their nitrate levels below 40-50ppm? He felt that since most of my parameters are good that my nitrates being at 20-30 was good. Because I'm quite new at this, I tend to believe what people in the business tell me. So if this info is bunk, I wouldn't know. You guys are scaring me a bit by telling me to get rid of my sump setup. I honestly don't know where to go from here. Thank you all again, as I truly appreciate the advice. Thanks to "fishytime" for taking your extra time with me!
PS I have about 20-25 pounds of live rock

[Pescador]

Hey
How big is your tank? If you have 1 to 1 1/2 lbs. of live rock per gallon you don't need the biowheel or any other media for biological filtration.
You could probably keep one of the filter trays for mechanical filtration if you change it frequently.
If you can remove the wheel and trays would that would free up some space in the sump? If it does see what the biggest skimmer footprint is that you could fit in there.
For nitrate levels I think most people with corals try to keep the levels under 10 ppm. Fish only tanks can be much higher.
I have no experience with sea horses but I don't think many people keep them in a reef because of the high water flow needed and I don't know about their tolerance for nitrate.

[BlueAbyss]

As was said above, biological filtration (the biowheel and apparently the batting that you use in your filter trays) is not needed in reef tanks, that's what the live rock is for. The reason they told you not to change all the filter material at once is for biological filtration... when you change it, you lose the bacteria that populate it. This works for fish only tanks, or tanks with little live rock... it is not needed (and probably the source of your nitrates) in a tank with lots of live rock.

Skimmer tend to work best when they are run constantly. Something about the interaction of the proteins and the 'skin' that forms on the inside surfaces of the skimmer body makes them more efficient when they've been running for a couple days to a week straight, or so I've been told.

It's obvious that you don't have a lot of flow in the display (you are keeping seahorses after all), have you considered adding some live rock to your sump? Larger chunks will have deeper areas that are anaerobic, which provides a place for the nitrate consuming bacteria to live.... while you're at it, you could run some Chaetomorpha algae in there with light, that will also help with the nitrates. Or grow some other macro on the rock.

Some fish do poorly in nitrate laden water... something to keep in mind if your fishes look a little off.