Emperor Filter Will It Work

I am wanting to start a 55 gallon reef tank. My local store
recommended emperor filter system. will that work for my tank or
should i get another type filter system. also what would be good for
lighting.

thanks

Hi, Rene.

The Emperor is a good filter but for a reef, my experience is that you
cannot beat a sump-type filter with an overflow box attached to your tank.
I install a flow diverter in the return line to create variances in the
current. This eliminates the need for a more expensive wave maker.
Filtration is the lifeblood of any tank and a reef is quite an investment.
You won't want to cut corners when it comes to filters.
Glenda )
"Rene" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am wanting to start a 55 gallon reef tank. My local store
recommended emperor filter system. will that work for my tank or
should i get another type filter system. also what would be good for
lighting.

thanks

Rene,

I have a 90 gallon reef with 2 Emperor 400 filters running. This is a
little bit more turnover than required for a 90 gallon and that's exactly
what I wanted. Up until a week ago the Emperors were my only filter
running.

I can tell you after 4 months of running that I wouldn't do it any other
way. I don't do a lot of water changes compared to others and my water is
great. (I do test often.) The fish are happy, the corals are growing and
look healthy. I recently put a skimmer on because it was given to me for
free. I will only run it every once in a while though. The Emperor also
does a great CO2 to O2 exchange.

One thing extra I really like about the 400's are that they have extra
filter boxes in them. If you want to add more charcoal, phosphate filters,
anything.... the trays are there. They are rather quiet in my opinion but
I have to admit that I haven't listened to a lot of other filters to
compare.

I have read the biowheels can be removed after the live rock has really
grown coralline. This is because the wheels can accumulate nitrates. I
haven't seen this mentioned on the manufacturer's website though. In
reality, the bio-wheels should never be changed. You want those to grow and
accumulate the good algae.

If I had to pick something that I could change, I wish they weren't as wide.
They need to be for their purpose, but I can't put a lot more on the back of
the tank. (I'm building a sump that will help this.) So consider that when
you are designing your tank. They need about 4.5" of back space to the wall
but the width may take up room that you want for a skimmer, a siphon
overflow, air tubes, whatever.

I learned about these filters from a guy whose been running many tanks for
years. His tanks are awesome. From there I went and did some reading. Add
2 or 3 power heads and you are ready.

Sorry if that was long-winded.

Good luck,

Bryan
www.geocities.com/bryg30


"Rene" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am wanting to start a 55 gallon reef tank. My local store
recommended emperor filter system. will that work for my tank or
should i get another type filter system. also what would be good for
lighting.

thanks

Hang on here what kind of coral do you have? All softies is my guess. for
a 90 gallon you need ar lewast 2,250 gallons of flow per hour. 30 in
reality you need top line all four sides of the tank with emperor 400's to
give you enough flow. Just gecause they say 400 does nopt mean they flow
400 gallons per hour it is probably closer to 400 liters which is a lot
less.


"Bryan" wrote in message
...
Rene,

I have a 90 gallon reef with 2 Emperor 400 filters running. This is a
little bit more turnover than required for a 90 gallon and that's exactly
what I wanted. Up until a week ago the Emperors were my only filter
running.

I can tell you after 4 months of running that I wouldn't do it any other
way. I don't do a lot of water changes compared to others and my water is
great. (I do test often.) The fish are happy, the corals are growing and
look healthy. I recently put a skimmer on because it was given to me for
free. I will only run it every once in a while though. The Emperor also
does a great CO2 to O2 exchange.

One thing extra I really like about the 400's are that they have extra
filter boxes in them. If you want to add more charcoal, phosphate
filters, anything.... the trays are there. They are rather quiet in my
opinion but I have to admit that I haven't listened to a lot of other
filters to compare.

I have read the biowheels can be removed after the live rock has really
grown coralline. This is because the wheels can accumulate nitrates. I
haven't seen this mentioned on the manufacturer's website though. In
reality, the bio-wheels should never be changed. You want those to grow
and accumulate the good algae.

If I had to pick something that I could change, I wish they weren't as
wide. They need to be for their purpose, but I can't put a lot more on the
back of the tank. (I'm building a sump that will help this.) So consider
that when you are designing your tank. They need about 4.5" of back space
to the wall but the width may take up room that you want for a skimmer, a
siphon overflow, air tubes, whatever.

I learned about these filters from a guy whose been running many tanks for
years. His tanks are awesome. From there I went and did some reading.
Add 2 or 3 power heads and you are ready.

Sorry if that was long-winded.

Good luck,

Bryan
www.geocities.com/bryg30


"Rene" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am wanting to start a 55 gallon reef tank. My local store
recommended emperor filter system. will that work for my tank or
should i get another type filter system. also what would be good for
lighting.

thanks

Emperor is rated at 400 gph... true it may not be exactly 400 but I'm
running two so I don't mind. 400 Liters? I doubt. Filtration-wise, I like
to turn the aquarium over at least 4 or 5 times an hour. 30 times would be
way too turbulent in a 90 gallon.

I also have a couple more powerheads and an SCWD with two outs to get water
flowing throughout. One powerhead is about to come out though.

See www.geocities.com/bryg30 for details if you are interested in what I'm
maintaining.

B


I turn the water around
"Trop Treasures" wrote in message
...
Hang on here what kind of coral do you have? All softies is my guess.
for a 90 gallon you need ar lewast 2,250 gallons of flow per hour. 30 in
reality you need top line all four sides of the tank with emperor 400's to
give you enough flow. Just gecause they say 400 does nopt mean they flow
400 gallons per hour it is probably closer to 400 liters which is a lot
less.


"Bryan" wrote in message
...
Rene,

I have a 90 gallon reef with 2 Emperor 400 filters running. This is a
little bit more turnover than required for a 90 gallon and that's exactly
what I wanted. Up until a week ago the Emperors were my only filter
running.

I can tell you after 4 months of running that I wouldn't do it any other
way. I don't do a lot of water changes compared to others and my water
is great. (I do test often.) The fish are happy, the corals are growing
and look healthy. I recently put a skimmer on because it was given to me
for free. I will only run it every once in a while though. The Emperor
also does a great CO2 to O2 exchange.

One thing extra I really like about the 400's are that they have extra
filter boxes in them. If you want to add more charcoal, phosphate
filters, anything.... the trays are there. They are rather quiet in my
opinion but I have to admit that I haven't listened to a lot of other
filters to compare.

I have read the biowheels can be removed after the live rock has really
grown coralline. This is because the wheels can accumulate nitrates. I
haven't seen this mentioned on the manufacturer's website though. In
reality, the bio-wheels should never be changed. You want those to grow
and accumulate the good algae.

If I had to pick something that I could change, I wish they weren't as
wide. They need to be for their purpose, but I can't put a lot more on
the back of the tank. (I'm building a sump that will help this.) So
consider that when you are designing your tank. They need about 4.5" of
back space to the wall but the width may take up room that you want for a
skimmer, a siphon overflow, air tubes, whatever.

I learned about these filters from a guy whose been running many tanks
for years. His tanks are awesome. From there I went and did some
reading. Add 2 or 3 power heads and you are ready.

Sorry if that was long-winded.

Good luck,

Bryan
www.geocities.com/bryg30


"Rene" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am wanting to start a 55 gallon reef tank. My local store
recommended emperor filter system. will that work for my tank or
should i get another type filter system. also what would be good for
lighting.

thanks

Do you already have the tank, or are you going to
purchasing a tank?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Rene wrote on 9/19/2006 12:34 PM:
I am wanting to start a 55 gallon reef tank. My local store
recommended emperor filter system. will that work for my tank or
should i get another type filter system. also what would be good for
lighting.

thanks

Good point..... may find the lids won't work so well with a hangon water
fall filter.
or if the tanks not bought yet ya could try get a drilled one
drilled = stylin hey




"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Do you already have the tank, or are you going to purchasing a tank?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Rene wrote on 9/19/2006 12:34 PM:
I am wanting to start a 55 gallon reef tank. My local store
recommended emperor filter system. will that work for my tank or
should i get another type filter system. also what would be good for
lighting. thanks

"Rene" wrote in message ups.com...
I am wanting to start a 55 gallon reef tank. My local store
recommended emperor filter system. will that work for my tank or
should i get another type filter system. also what would be good for
lighting.

Good idea for you would be to check some nice tanks
running reliably already on some web-based forum like
www.reefcentral.com (check out Tank of the Month section)
This will give you an idea on required equipment...

Very rare is that a reef tank has ANY filter like Emperor.
Also, sump is used more like a hiden technical tank
to put skimmer and heater there, not for actual filtration.

Filtration is caried out exclusively with the skimmer and live rock.

Rene wrote:
I am wanting to start a 55 gallon reef tank. My local store
recommended emperor filter system. will that work for my tank or
should i get another type filter system. also what would be good for
lighting.

thanks

Here would be my suggestion to you. When setting up a reef tank set it
up as naturally as possible, use a live sand bed and live rock for your
biological filtration, live corals for your primary mechinical
filtration, and use a good protien skimmer for just about everything
else. When you notice the water is turning yellow use some carbon. The
only other thing you need is something to move the water around and for
that you can use a closed loop or some powerheads.

I would tell you that you don't want the emperor filter on a reef tank,
you are better off without it. It is not because the filter is no good,
but that it is only good at part of the nitrogen cycle. It is good at
getting rid of the ammonia and nitrate, but its end product is nitrate.
If you use the live rock/live sand as the filter, the exterior of the
rock and top of the sand will have the bacteria that eats the ammonia
and nitrite, and deeper into the sand bed and inside the rock you will
have areas of low oxygen for denitrifaction so the end result will be
nitrogen gas, not nitrate.

Kim
www.jensalt.com

kim gross wrote on 9/20/2006 12:02 AM:
I would tell you that you don't want the emperor filter on a reef tank,
you are better off without it. It is not because the filter is no good,
but that it is only good at part of the nitrogen cycle. It is good at
getting rid of the ammonia and nitrate,

He meant ammonia and nitrite.
:-)

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets