Predator Tank

[danny]

Hola,

I have a 75g that I recently made a predator tank. I guess I should have done a little bit more research before taking the plunge. Anywho, tank has been up and running for well over a year and doing well with about 80lbs of LR, plenty of light and 39g sump with a lot of macro and LR chunks. Sand bed is probably 3 inches in the tank.

Problem I have is the tank is just absolutely filthy! I do water changes like a champ but it still goes to crap in a matter of days. I have a really big puffer and a good size moray as the only inhabitants and they are pretty good buddies. Question is, what else can I do to to keep the tank somewhat clean? I don't overfeed by any means and I'm not really aware of anything else I can put in there with those guys that will help clean and won't get chomped.

My thoughts thus far - Do I have too much sand? Too much LR? Should I pull the LR out of the sump? There's probably a little too much in there anyway.

Any and all help is much appreciated. If I can't figure this out, I know a puffer and an eel that will be up for adoption. ;)

[JimD]

One option would be to remove the sand completely and add massive ammounts of flow along with a large efficiant skimmer. The flow will keep the solids suspended and more readily available to the skimmer...

[alton]

Add GSP to your tank. You need some type of coral to help control nitrates. I would say mushrooms but they would probably be eaten by your puffer. May want to try Xenia too.

[devonian]

maybe try throwing some greens into the display tank to grow and use up more nitrates, ...

[Ping]

I ran a FOWLR for years with 2 Emperor HOB 400's for filtration and no skimmer, you will be surprised on how well this works with a FOWLR.

Another option is One Emperor 400, More flow with a few powerheads and a sump with Bio balls.

[sampsonndelila]

Skimmer?

[danny]

I ran a FOWLR for years with 2 Emperor HOB 400's for filtration and no skimmer, you will be surprised on how well this works with a FOWLR.

Another option is One Emperor 400, More flow with a few powerheads and a sump with Bio balls.

That's interesting. How often would you do the water changes?

[Ping]

10% a month. I changed all four filter pads every one - two weeks.