Building Wet/dry filter

[Merdock21]

Hello all! New to the forums and like what I see so far. Any way my soon to be wife is a Marine Biology major and so we set up a saltwater reef tank in our apartment almost a year ago (I ended up taking care of it). I didn’t know much about saltwater tanks when I first started out but I have started to pick up more and more as I go. But anyhow I am running a canister filter with 3 media baskets and have the protein skimmer in the tank (I really don’t like the tank this way). So to my question, I want to build my own wet/dry filter and set things up so I can enjoy the tank a little more and give the little guys in there some room to play.

Now do you still need for say mechanical filtration when you set up a wet/dry filter? More or less do I still need to have my canister filter hooked up and running water to the wet/dry filter and then back to the tank? I only have a 30 gallon bow front tank but I have had a problem with some soft corals and crabs/shrimps dying and kind of feel like I need a better filter set up so that is what I am looking in to. I can build just about anything so I have that going for me. I’m gunning to make the wet/dry filter and everything fit under my enclosed stand and have some PVC pipes replace the rubber tubing that comes into and out of the tank. Any how any help would be nice and if I lost you just ask and I will feel in the blanks. Thanks all and I can’t wait to get some feed back!

[Loverotties]

For a reef all you need is the rock as your filter ,both canister and wet/dry are for fish only tanks.It a reef it just make nitrates and you don't want them in a reef or Fish Only with live rock.

[Merdock21]

Oh right thanks for the input. And I have a reef tank with fish. Thank you!

[jenglish]

I have to agree with Rottie, wet drys are not the best solution for a reef tank. Your best bet IMHO is jsut a good skimmer and liverock. Of course you can always take that DIY attitude to make a nice sump for all your equipment.... or a nice refugium .

[Merdock21]

Ok so a wet/dry is a bad thing for reef tanks! So what I am looking at is making a reef sump or a reefugium tank. I want to get the skimmer out of the tank I do know that much, also do you keep your heater in your main tank then or do you move it down to the other or do you have a heater in both. So I am really looking at having no canister filter and a reefugium or a sump with an over flow. So I am betting that some of my old corals died because they were not getting the O2 they needed because of the canister filter.

[jenglish]

A wet dry is really just made obselete by live rock. The rock is providing the surface for your bacteria. larger rocks provide an anaerobic area that can process the nitrate into nitrogen gas.

In general you want to keep as much equipment in the sump and out of the display as possible. This is partaily for looks but in the case of your heater you are avoiding having as many problems with warm and cool spots in your DT. I personally view fuges as a place for biodiversity but they have some added bonuses that if you grow macroalgae in them they remove nitrates. If you run it on an opposite photoperiod it can help balance ph swings. In a FO tank a canister can be good but in a reef they are generally set aside for occasionaly use. Like when you need to polish the water or run carbon.

If you run a skimmer that will help with your oxygenation

[Fat Tony]

If you follow the link in my signature, it will take to my build thread, read through it and you will see what an example of a DIY sump looks like and how easy it is to make

HTH

[Kimberfish]

we just finished building one to replace a modded wet/dry we had originally. Can you modify the wet/dry you have now? Take out the bioballs and refill with some rock and put the skimmer and heater in there?
Here's how mine was: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...41758363kUhFgz

It worked fine but we ended up just building a new one due to the overcrowding issue. Here's the thread:
http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f1...le-122296.html

Good luck

[aquawolf]

Welcome to TRT!!!

As others have stated, what you really want to do is build a sump to place under the tank which can be done very easily.

[egdevilboy]

i use a standard sump but instead of bioballs i use Live Rock Rubble.

[OneDummHikk]

Somehow, I missed this thread until now. Hmmmph! Kimberfish, that wet/dry looks familiar to me for some reason
If bioballs are bad for a reef, what am I gonna do with the 2 55 gal drums of bioballs I have been collecting? Don't answer that.....

[strat24]

Live rock is where its at