Skimmer & LR or wet/dry?

[mufflerguy]

I currently have a 180 FOWLR & a etss 800 skimmer.
I am interested in purchasing another bigger tank & found a 300 with a huge wet/dry w/28 gallons of bioballs( no LR).
What are you guys running & which is better.
I always thought a quality skimmer & LR were the best.
Matt

[artful-dodger]

Do you plan to keep the larger tank as FOWLR? If so, either approach will probably work.

You can still use LR and a skimmer even with the wet/dry. Some people describe the wet/dry as a nitrate factory which, by itself, it probably is. All of the nitrates produced by the W/D would, however, also be produced by LR as well...and then consumed by different bacteris in/on the LR. LR will still process nitrates, no matter how the nitrates were generated.

Even so, most of the fish are not particularly sensitive to nitrates anyway. (you just have to worry about algae thriving on the nitrates...)

Keep the skimmer or upgrade it or even add a second if you have space--get rid of the proteins before they break down. Does the big W/D still leave room in the stand for a second sump? Perhaps you can add another, connect them with big bulkhead fittings and get extra skimming and even a refuge under that big boy!

[CJ31]

Use all of them. I have 250lbs of LR (that started as base rock), a good skimmer and a W/D and all parameters are fine. The system has been setup about 9 months and nitrates have stayed under 10 so far.

Everyone talks about the W/D's being a nitrate problem, but I think that is the case when too little or no LR is used.

[Puffygrrl]

I say BOTH too. In my 90-gallon aggressive tank I have about 175lbs of LR and 150lbs of LS. It has a 30-gallon sump in which I use basic filter floss instead of Bioballs and I have the EuroReef E6-1 skimmer running. I feed the tank a twice a day from a wide meaty selection of foods and still run ZERO nitrates.

I am upgrading though this week to a 150-gallon with 2 connected 20 gallon sumps and Bioballs, but plan on loading the tank with 200 pounds of LR.

I have found a layer of LS in the sump allows some organisms to go undisturbed, maybe thats why I have no nitrates

[Carlos Valderrama]

Excuse me,then, may I use a wet/dry filter with live sand and some live rock (5 pounds)in a small FO tank (25 gal)? thanks in advance

[artful-dodger]

Carlos,

Sure you can. I'd recommend that you use more LR, though. Five pounds is about one rock (depending on the density). I'd go with at least 20 pounds, maybe more. The tank will look better with the rock, and the fish will be happier to have places to hide and the whole tank will be healthier with the LR filtration to supplement the W/D.

On my 37 gal tank (fish mostly...good sized eel, maroon clown, dwarf angel, small sailfin tang with a few mushrooms, polyps, leathers) I have 50 pounds of LR and (because of the small size of the cabinet) a W/D filter with skimmer. Works fine. The eel is a bit messy in his table manners, so I end up having to do water changes of about 5 gal a week, but water parameters are all fine for these occupants.

[Carlos Valderrama]

Thanks artful-dodger, there are some way to calculate the safe ratio between the fish load and the live rock and the size of the tank to keep fishes with out a wet/dry filter?.

[artful-dodger]

No good rules that I've ever read about the relative capabilities of rock vs. wet/dry for converting ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. Different densities of rock will have (by definition) different weights for the same amount of space taken up. On average I think most go with a pound or more per gallon of tank capacity. It can be expensive...but it can look much better than a bare tank. Here's a link to a recent thread that gives an idea of what the rock can do for the look of your tank Aquascaping 325 pounds of rock is a lot but this is a big tank (he doesn't actually say what size if I recall but I'd guess it is 250-300 gallons)

[Carlos Valderrama]

thanks for the info.