Wet Dry Filter

[reef-nut]

I was thinking of buying a wet dry instead of building a sump. I thought I would get everyones opinion before I did. What is wrong with wet drys?

 

[killingseed2000]

nitrate factory, are you doing a reef or fish only? the bio media in a wetdry would need to be cleaned once a week in order to keep it working good. now if you whent a refuge you dont have to clean and bio media. some algea growing in a fuge will eat nitrate and other things to help promote a stable environment for coral and fish.

 

[reef-nut]

I am taking the bio balls out of it and making a fuge. Its going on a 29 galllon reef that has been set up for 6 months. I have a lot of LR and zoos, ricordea and a couple hard corals and about 6 small fish.

 

[killingseed2000]

very simple to make one from a 20 l tank and a couple percut peices of glass from a local glass company. some glue and a little bit of work. i have made 5 or more that way. a 20 l can handle up to 75 gl. in your case you could get a way with a 10 if done right. if you where local to me i'd make one of the weekend.

 

[Eklikewhoa]

Look into the Eshopps sumps....that is what I am running on my 30g and it's super nice!

Drsfostersmith.com is having their 25th anniv. sale right now on them.

 

[CoralGeeks]

nitrate factory, are you doing a reef or fish only? the bio media in a wetdry would need to be cleaned once a week in order to keep it working good. now if you whent a refuge you dont have to clean and bio media. some algea growing in a fuge will eat nitrate and other things to help promote a stable environment for coral and fish.

Do you know this from first hand experience or something you read somewhere? I know SEVERAL people who use bioballs with no problems. The old style of bioballs that have the sponges in them are the ones that caused problems, not the newer styles. If use a filter sock on standpipe then there is no way debris can be caught in there. Further more, the people who use liverock rubble in place of bioballs are more likely to get debris trapped in there thus creating a "nitrate factory".

 

[killingseed2000]

"Do you know this from first hand experience " i'd have to say , yes, first hand experience. my first tanks back a long long time ago in a place far far away (give or take 15 year ago, eek i am like wow just thinking about how long ago it was). had nothing but nitrate problems. take my water to have tested or test myself and my nitrate where always in the red, was like grrrr. even if i was doing water changes it didnt help. so i stop useing the bio media and the nitrate came down. it was a pain for me and did learn from it back then. for fish only it was ok not too much of a big deal.

i would have to say , yes, replacing the bio media with LR is a good thing, debris trapped in the live rock will be eat and passed by the bactiaria and those it would not be a "nitrate factory" but should be fully submerge for that result and not treated as a wet dry/air gas exchange.

"old style of bioballs that have the sponges", those came out after i started this hobby , it was another way to try to improve the bio media but as we all should know sponges are a major "nitrate factory" and any sponges in our tank any where should be clean weekly.


now with my new system ,which is getting ready to be upgraded to a 125, i started with a nice DIY sump, i have made both DIY wetdry and fuge/sump all the time, my system has never has nitrates problem. i have better results running my fuge and its has made my happy with the out come and less work.