asamosley

hello im starting a 300 ltr marine tank with live rock, could someone tell me what would be the best external filter for this aquirium, iv been looking at a aqua vital 500 ltr filter for about £70.00,is this filter any good i cant seem to find alot of reviews on it. Or should i go for a better well none make and pay more. kind regards matthew

capekate

Welcome to fishlore .
Sounds like you will have a great SW tank up and running soon. We have a number of SW members here in the forum, not sure if they are online yet. But they will be more qualified to give you some help on SW issues. I run only FW tanks and so Im not even sure if the external filters are designed differently for fresh or salt water tank.? If they are the same, then I will be able to give some input on which filter I find is the best for my tanks.

asamosley

thankyou,i think they do both.

capekate

I checked out your external filter online, and I am not familiar with that brand so cannot make a opinion on it. The main thing I would think you want to make sure of is the GPH of the filter you are looking at. I think, but not certain, that for your size tank you would want a filter with at least rate of 300 GPH?

travie

If you get enough live rock for you tank, which is at least 2 lbs. per gallon(sorry not in ltr), you won't need an external filter for you tank. You should still get a protein skimmer, but an external filter won't be necessary.


EDIT: Forgot to mention make sure you have adquate water flow in the tank with the use of powerheads/wavemakers.

capekate

ahhh this is why we need our SW members to be here! They do know what SW tanks need.

Peterpiper

Hi asamosley and welcome,
As travie pointed out, The ammount of LR will govern if you require a filter.
If you are not going to run a filter then you should have as much flow in the tank as you can, aim for 20-30 x total volume. this can be done using 2 or 3 power heads. The water flow should go between the LR, The LR is doing the bio filtration.
I would be looking at a protein skimmer that is rated for a 500-700lt tank ( over skimming ). By using a larger skimmer you will be removing the wast quicker and reducing the bio load, and smaller water changes.
Good luck with the SW Tank and keep us up dated
Pete

asamosley

thank you all for your help

nemo addict

hi and welcome to fishlore where in uk are you ??