built in wet dry; good or bad?

[redwilly]

I have done a few simple fo tanks and i recently bought a 50g (36x15x20) with the built in wet dry, what are the pros and cons here?? It has three small media chambers and the bio ball trickle through, excuse the crudeness of my drawing!, but i'm wonderring if it will be enough, I am planning a fowlr and maybe 1 anenomea. Also i want to buy some ls and some regular sand for my cycle, where can i get the regular sand w/o paying lfs prices?? what kind of sand do i get? i want it to be whitish or yellow. What is best for the filter medias? i was thinking a sponge for big stuff then carbon?? then coral?? where can i get this stuff online? are there any other sites out there for comparison??

 

[poiboy]

Pros=you wont have to buy a filter cons=if you dont do routine maintence it will cause a nitrate problem.
L/S & L/R will help your filtration, dont use the carbon all the time, it removes to much of the good stuff. Try nitrate, ammonia, phosphate or some other kind of media.
L/S or just sand should be around salt size, if you go with anything to fine you might end up having a dust cloud with FOWLR (MY .02) Your white sand will turn brown because of the diatoms you will get, just about in any new tank. Be sure to use ro/di water or just ro.
Check this site for the things your looking for. If not shoot me an e-mail, I got some good ones, oh and what drawing

 

[livingwater]

I have used wetdry on my last 3 tanks. The only time I didnt.....was when I was on my first salt water tank(a 55 gallon) I used a little hang on filter, I have not had any problems since. As far as maintance......just make she you stay on top of things. Which should be atumatic for any hobbist

 

[shep]

I was anti wet/dry until buying cpr cy filter system. I have found that it does provide a much more stable enviorment and tolerates our errors alot.