hello all,
new member here, just have a quick question and other peoples opinions.
has anyone ever thought to run a pool sand filter in conjunction with your sump.
This is why we wouldn't for the most part: that is aerobic filtration surface area vastly in excess for what's needed to convert ammonia to harmless metabolites
It's endpoint production is nitrate
If it's endpoint production was reduction of nitrate/anaerobic degassing of nitrate we would all do it
That kind of filter is required when the tanks run such high fish bioloading that a normal setup can't oxidize all their ammonia. Literally any combination of live rock and sand alone will run all practical reeftank bioloads. The filtration schemes that are in high demand do not produce nitrate as an endpoint measure
To run a pool sand filter is harmless, and can't help anything we don't already provide regarding ammonia digestion. its the exact same impact as running 1, 2 or 5 canister filters on a tank that already registered zero ammonia for a given bioload with no canisters in place. sand turnover filtration is used in aquaculture where a certain tank has to run 130 tilapia fish, for ex. without the high surface area + filtration, they'd all be in ammonia loss quickly because they aren't kept in tanks that have high surface area by design (fish aquaculture is typically done in stock tanks or similar setups where the required surface area is outside the actual holding tank)