wet and dry filters ... good or bad.

[Luis]

I've heard somewhere that wet and dry filters are bad because it contribute to increase nitrates, it's that true? I just removed all the bio-balls out of my sump, just in case.... what do you think guys?


Thank you

 

[bezzer]

Luis,
Wet/Dry filters are fine for certain applications and uses.
If you are considering a FO or FOWLR tank then a wet/dry filter may be the way to go.
The extra nitrates that a wet/dry might produce shouldn't effect most healthy fish but they aren't a good thing if you're setting up a reef.
Many corals can be sensitive to excess nitrates and will have less chance of surviving in such an environment so many reefers have chossen to go without a wet/dry and go with a modified Berlin Method.
HTH,
Brian

[ July 17, 2001: Message edited by: bezzer ]

 

[JohnD]

I have to second everything bezzer said. You need to decide what type of tank you want to set up.

I have a wet/dry on my 55 FO and it works well. I do monthly water changes to keep the nitrates at moderate levels. This tank does not have a DSB. I am considering adding one when I upgrade the tank some time next year. That will probably reduce the nitrates.

 

[dgosho]

I converted my 50g FOWLR tank in January, I have a wet/dry trikle filter that has been doing a great job since I set up the FOWLR tank in '96 - never "had" to do water changes, just replaced the water that evaperated (<1g a day) the only time I did water changes was when i was forced to because of moving the tank (averaged about once a year).

In January i converted it by taking out the crushed coral and puting in 2" sand bed, doubled the amount of live rock, (its at about 75lbs now), added a new PH, increased the lighting, threw in some macro-algae and started to add corals. I did nothing with my wet/dry system. Initially (before i added corals) the nitrates jumped to 80ppm so i started frequent water changes. The nitrates slowly dropped and after about six weeks they were not measureable. I started adding corals and slowed down on the water changes. Last week i did my first 10% change in 6 weeks. The only reason i did it was because i felt like i should. None of my measurements were bad so I probably could have left it. BTW i replace more than a galon of evaporated water a day now due to the added lights and my fan.

I hear that the amount of time I have been running it may not be long enough to know if the bio-balls are going to cause a problem but here we are 5 months after the nitrates hit zero and they are still at zero. My tank is clean and healthy.