Aquatop Recife 40 Gallon Filtration Options

[smoothie7]

Looking for help on the filtration of the Aquatop Recife 40 Gallon Cube. The bank has multiple chambers. In the first chamber, there is a filter sponge that takes on water from the tank. The chamber is plenty tall to possibly put something underneath that if necessary. It then flows in to a stack of 4 boxes with different media in them. The top box has carbon infused media cubes, then the second box has Phosphate/Nitrate Removing Media (looks like white sponges) then the last 2 boxes are ceramic quartz rings, kind of like bio-balls back in the day. Those four boxes sit in the center of the back large chamber. My dilemma is I am upgrading the light that requires an arm to be mounted on the back of the glass and will interfere with these boxes. I won't be able to remove them if necessary without removing the light. Trying to figure out what other options there may be.

 

[smoothie7]

Here is a picture of my tank along with a factory picture of the back. I am not using a skimmer on this nano.

 

[X-37B]

On my 18" 20g Aquatop nano cube I used eheim substrate pro and matrix as bio filtration so I could have a heavy populated system.
Get rid of the black sponge and get a filter floss basket. Attatched pic.
For carbon or gfo I used a nylon bag and just hung it in the first chamber. You could leave the top middle open and just drop in a bag.
I ran 2 16hds from the back and never had to remove the middle baskets. If you wanted to remove them to clean then just remove the light once a year or so.

 

[smoothie7]

Looks great. I was hoping to find a media basket for my tank but haven't had any luck. Do you have a link to the filter floss basket?

 

[X-37B]

I think it was this site.

inTank Filter Floss Holders

inTank aquarium-specific designed Filter Floss Holders help improve the filtration and clarity of your aquarium while making maintenance extremely easy.

intankaquatics.com

 

[kingranch2003]

On my 18" 20g Aquatop nano cube I used eheim substrate pro and matrix as bio filtration so I could have a heavy populated system.
Get rid of the black sponge and get a filter floss basket. Attatched pic.
For carbon or gfo I used a nylon bag and just hung it in the first chamber. You could leave the top middle open and just drop in a bag.
I ran 2 16hds from the back and never had to remove the middle baskets. If you wanted to remove them to clean then just remove the light once a year or so.

Do you think I could use the same filtration set up on the 40 gallon aquatop? I bought the setup because I thought it had everything it needed. The lfs where I purchased it told me to take out the sponge it comes with and all of the media trays. No need for the skimmer and just use filter floss basically where you have yours.. I probably would've chosen a different tank altogether if I'd realized this. As a beginner, I plan to grow soft corals and lps only. Would you agree with lfs here? Any pointers would be much appreciated. Your reef is very inspiring.

 

[kingranch2003]

On my 18" 20g Aquatop nano cube I used eheim substrate pro and matrix as bio filtration so I could have a heavy populated system.
Get rid of the black sponge and get a filter floss basket. Attatched pic.
For carbon or gfo I used a nylon bag and just hung it in the first chamber. You could leave the top middle open and just drop in a bag.
I ran 2 16hds from the back and never had to remove the middle baskets. If you wanted to remove them to clean then just remove the light once a year or so.

Wow!! You basically only use filter floss and drop in bags of gfo once in a while? Where did you place the bio filtration products, if you don't mind? I have to ditch the baskets that come with it as well, and I am still currently trying to dial in my filtration in my 40 gallon aquatop recife. The basket chamber is useless bc my light mounts over it. I'd like to add a little filter caddy or something to the 2nd chamber but the heater is there. The heater would work in chamber one if I could run the power cord around the filter floss somehow. Just picking your brain a bit because. Well, look at your tank lol

 

[X-37B]

Wow!! You basically only use filter floss and drop in bags of gfo once in a while? Where did you place the bio filtration products, if you don't mind? I have to ditch the baskets that come with it as well, and I am still currently trying to dial in my filtration in my 40 gallon aquatop recife. The basket chamber is useless bc my light mounts over it. I'd like to add a little filter caddy or something to the 2nd chamber but the heater is there. The heater would work in chamber one if I could run the power cord around the filter floss somehow. Just picking your brain a bit because. Well, look at your tank

My lights were in the way too. If I wanted to remove the baskets I had to move the light mounting bar. Just use the baskets as you wont need to remove them but maybe once every year or more to clean.
The tank was only up for 10 months and I took it down.
I Ran no heater as the snake room was kept at 80.
For your 40 look at noop K7 v3 lights.
I have one and ran it on a reboot of the same tank. I ran it for several months then had to move so it came down.
If you were local I would give you the light as its just sitting in the garage with 3 16hds I may never use.
The K7 is a clone of Radions gen 4 light.
I run Reefbreeders and Radions on my 2 new systems.
This is the 18 reboot before I had to take it down. It was only several months old running the K7 and a diy air driven skimmer in the second chamber.

 

[kingranch2003]

My lights were in the way too. If I wanted to remove the baskets I had to move the light mounting bar. Just use the baskets as you wont need to remove them but maybe once every year or more to clean.
The tank was only up for 10 months and I took it down.
I Ran no heater as the snake room was kept at 80.
For your 40 look at noop K7 v3 lights.
I have one and ran it on a reboot of the same tank. I ran it for several months then had to move so it came down.
If you were local I would give you the light as its just sitting in the garage with 3 16hds I may never use.
The K7 is a clone of Radions gen 4 light.
I run Reefbreeders and Radions on my 2 new systems.
This is the 18 reboot before I had to take it down. It was only several months old running the K7 and a diy air driven skimmer in the second chamber.

 

[kingranch2003]

Thanks a lot for the reply. You've actually been a lot of help since I've joined this community. I was 1000% going to get the Noopsyche k7, on your recommendation actually, and before I pulled the trigger, my wife bought me a xr15 for my birthday. So I'm running with that for right now. The noops look great for a fraction of the price. Your beautiful reefs make me feel a little bit better about my filtration options. Thank you again!

 

[X-37B]

Thanks a lot for the reply. You've actually been a lot of help since I've joined this community. I was 1000% going to get the Noopsyche k7, on your recommendation actually, and before I pulled the trigger, my wife bought me a xr15 for my birthday. So I'm running with that for right now. The noops look great for a fraction of the price. Your beautiful reefs make me feel a little bit better about my filtration options. Thank you again!

You will do fine with the xr15.
I ran 4 on my 80 and now 3 on my ext 50.
Mine are gen 5 blues running full ab+.
Old 80 and current ext 50.
Ext 50 is only at 50% scheduled.

 

[kingranch2003]

I'll definitely check out AB+. I've been running the radiant color template. I'd probably like the bluer AB+ better.