wet/ dry

[Poor Boy]

years ago i had an overflow box that drained into a completely submerged wet/ dry box with bio balls that drained into an in sump skimmer. in between the wet/ dry and the skimmer i had cheato with light shinned onto it.

this was about 7 years ago. i know a lot has changed since then. is this set up still efficient enough?

i planned on taking this same route with my 30 gallon.

[350gt]

I dont think many are using bio balls anymore replaced by live rock or rubble.

I am using a few rocks and a good amount of rubble before my skimmer section. Tank has been up over 3 years now.

[Poor Boy]

do you have a pic so i can see what youre talking about?

[Zephyr Aquatics]

Im not a fan of rubble in the sump. It almost allways collects detritus.

[ramsey]

Im not a fan of rubble in the sump. It almost allways collects detritus.

+1 it becomes a nitrate factory. You might look into the media blocks from Cermedia (the 8x8x4). They claim to give you a ton of surface area for bacteria (probably not useful unless you have very little rock) but more importantly, they claim to house anaerobic bacteria in the middle of the media where there's little oxygen. This could help reduce nitrate if their claim is true.

[alton]

Dinosaur here still using Bio Balls and MH lighting. I believe after 23 years of first bio bale and then bio balls and never a crash on any of my tanks the trick is to filter the water before it hits the bio balls. In saying that I like using the bio balls in a trickle filter/tower where half are above the water level and add a bunch of oxygen by trickling over them. I tried rubble in one of my smaller tanks once the rubble collected a bunch of junk and clogged up. If I would of used a filter pad ahead of the rubble it may of been okay, but those that push rubble in the sump believe you will grow enough animals to eat up that waste? On my 300 I used the old with the new by having my trickle tower along with a separate section for a fuge and skimmer. I believe a fuge needs a slow flow of water, not all of your return water going through it.

[350gt]

Im not a fan of rubble in the sump. It almost allways collects detritus.

This is true, i cleaned my sump for the 1st time in 3 years... It was about 1/4" thick under the rock..