Need some advice for noob on TL 550

Meneer

Meneer

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Hi

Just got a second hand TL 550. I want to set it up for a reef tank.
There is a 150W Heater
1400 l/h return pump with the UV thing and spraybar.

There are also 2 x 24 W(Blue & White) lights.

The skimmer is a Boyu WG-308 120l/h :(

Can someone please give me advice on setting up?
Do I remove the spraybar?
Is the pump strong enough?

How much extra flow do I need inside the tank?

What do I put in the different compartments?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanx
 
Dont knock the skimmer it works.
Rainbar turn so that holes push water across surface
i have two alternating wm3s and that works. not sure of output
first compartment all your filter medias. second is skimmer. third heater and cheato fourth return pump.
 
You are welcome to come and look at mine, i'm just down the road. I've done just about everything to it over the years. pm me for details
 
Good to see you getting started on one of these tanks.:thumbup:
The spray bar is good as mandarinman said, just point it slightly upwards to agatate the surface, this helps the oxgen get into the water.
For flow I would reccommend adding another one or two power heads with a combined flow rate of around 4000LPH. There are a few good powerheads around it all depends on how much you are willing to spend.

You have a few options for the first compartment.
1 remove sponge put filter floss in and change it at least once a week.
2 leave sponge in and put filter floss above it, then you have to change the floss and rinse the sponge. This is what I do.
3 dont use floss at all. I don't like this as the floss takes out a lot of mess.

Leave the skimmer in the second compartment.

In the third I would suggest some chemical filteration.
Phosgaurd is good as it keeps the phosphates down, you don't want phosphates.
Chemipure or purigen are good for taking out a few unwanted toxins.
Another option is to put some cheato in there but then you need a light above it to make it grow, this is good as it also consumes nitrates and phosphates.
I would also leave the heater in this compartment, if you put it in the last compartment it doesn't work so well because it doesn't get enough flow.

In the last compartment I wouldn't put anything except maybe an auto top up switch.

Live rock helps a lot with the biological filteration and it also looks good so get as much of this as you can. I would suggest about 13kgs. I have 20 in my TL550

The skimmer is ok for now you can always upgrade it later.

Tell us if you need to know or don't understand anything, there are a lot of guys with these tanks on the forum and we have all learned a lot of lessons the hard way. Good luck I will keep an eye out for some pics.;)
 
Hi

Would first decide what you want to keep in the tank.

I run mine in a slightly different configuration, main reason is that I do not run any mechanical filtration with the exception of a skimmer, trying to leave as much food in my system as possible, but this can be tricky.

So for this I run my skimmer in the first compartment, find that it is better to take the really nasty/big stuff out via the skimmer than a sponge.

Run all my chemical filtration in the second ( flow agains gravity), use Purigen, Chemipure, a Nitrate removal media and a Phosphate removal media.

My return pump is in my third compartment with a heater and a small pump that supply water to a low flow refugium in the forth.

I have dump the UV and the spray bar, but got a 2500 lph return pump and more than 5000lph inside the tanks from 3 pumps. I am in the 'more flow the better' group. Also got it hooked up to a stop/start wave make.

I also have a sand bed in my DT, but only about 8 kg of LR, and I have lots of fun looking after the tank.
 
I would bump up the return pump to 2500lph if you can, 1400lph is very low. Keep the spray bar. It's a nice feature of these tanks.
 
These tanks are great - mine has been going for about 3.5 months now - all the advice you get on this site is great....so use it! :)

Mine is setup as follows:
1st chamber - WG310 skimmer - 308 works great, just play around...wont skim much during cycle
2nd - filter flos which i change weekly.
3rd, homemade refugium with some cheato, and submersible led light bar, as well as a bag of purigen for now (purigen will go in the last chamber of my DIY media reactor that I am building....) Also have the heater in this chamber)
4th, return pump - media reactor will go in place of my old UV unit.....hopefully soon. Will run phosguard, carbon and purigen.....

I have +_ 12kg of aragonite sand (5cm plus layer) and 20kg's of rock in the tank.....I had some issues in the beginning with green hairline algae, but dosing some brightwell phosphat-E on a weekly basis, coupled with good maintenance and water changes has seemed to clear it!

Enjoy - and the best piece of advice I got from this site was " patience".....
 
Oh. yes lighting is very important - to start off with - the standard PL tubes are fine, but I will def upgrade to LED......

I added 5 Royal blue LED at the start - gave the tank a nice colour explosion, in the process of adding another 15 LED's......
 
Hi

There is a couple of places - I bought mine from ebay, you can try reefleds, rapidled etc.....

Rapiled sell some really nice DIY kits.....
 
Chemical media, Phosgaurd and purigen or chemipure. maybe look out for this new brightwell product called xport NO3 for the nitrates.
I ordered my leds from aquastyleonline, but have also ordered from ebay.
The trick is just getting everything to fit in the hood, but it is possible.
 
Hi. Those filter socks do exactly what they are called - "filter", meaning that the stuff you wane get rid off by using the chemical media, will probably not even get to it!

I would rather get the little media bags.....you will see they are made from a fine mesh.....so that water and impurities can flow through......with that sock the water will just by-pass it....

But, then again.....I might be wrong.....;)
 
Last edited:
Meneer said:
Can I put the chemical media in a pool filter sock?
Click to expand...

Yes you can. The stuff that the filter media removes is dissolved in the water so wont get filtered out before reaching the media in the bag. Just make sure the holes in the filter bag are small enough so that the filter media cannot pass through.
 
459b said:
Yes you can. The stuff that the filter media removes is dissolved in the water so wont get filtered out before reaching the media in the bag. Just make sure the holes in the filter bag are small enough so that the filter media cannot pass through.
Click to expand...


Explain please......? To my understanding and according to the instruction/descriptions on the boxes is that the media is normally micro porous.....and that it traps the unwanted particals in it.....so, how if you put a filter sock over the media.....wil it still work?
 
Oh, sorry....i see....you are saying it is already disolved in the water.....my bad! :)
 
The filter media removes the dissolved stuff that we cant see, like phosphates nitrates etc. The media is porous to increase surface area. It doesnt actually trap the phosphates/nitrates, but adsorbs it to its surface, hence larger surface area being more efficient.
 
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