Large tank and biofiltration

[grouper 42]

I want to upgrade to a 270 gal and cannot get a straight answer on the best way to achieve biofiltration. I intend it to be fish only and don't particularly care whether I have live rock and sand or not. If necessary for biolfiltration I will. I intend to have a protein skimmer. The alternatives appear to be 1) traditional trickle filter with bioballs, 2) Berlin filter set-up that would require live rock and sand to do the biofiltration, or 3) a fluidized bed filter that could be used by itself or in addition to the other two. I get conflicting advise from both talking to people and from what I read. One guy slams the use of trickle filters and another says they are still good. You here that trickle filters are nitrate factories but they obviously work well for alot of people. I realize that there may be more then one way to skin a cat here. I just want to know the best and easiest way before I start.

 

[jarvis]

They are all good methods of filtering. It just depends on what you intend to stock the tank with. If your aiming more torwads aggressive messy eating fish go with the bioballs. Fillterless berlin is geared more torwards reef application. Bioballs are the cheepest means of filtering for a FISH tank of your size. A protein skimmer will help out a lot. You might want to add a dsb using a large percentage of fine grain silca sand (quarts) to combat the nitrate factory if that is a concern. Silca sand does not lead to diatom bloom after the inital cycle is complete. Going with all live sand and live rock would be astronomical for a tank that size. Do the math....you might want to sit down when you come up with a total.

 

[pbuck]

I know most people add refugiums to their reef tanks but I would suggest one, even if it was small. The reason is that it will help to naturally remove nitrates (reducing # of water changes) and it will add a place for small critters to live that will be benificial to any tank. Also if you use a 24/7 lighting scheme for your refug. you will be able to maintain a more constant pH.

 

[krux]

wet/dry can be very clean, and will add such a minimal ammount of nitrates to your water you will probably not be able to detect it as long as you take care of the maintanance of it (ie clean it out once in a while, the stuff builds up on the balls and will eventually fall off, thats what causes the trates).
For fish only, get a huge wet/dry, or have one made, on your size tank getting one made from a 55 would not be unheard of. then add on a good aggressive skimmer, one of the countercurrent, high flow models would be perfect. lastly i agree, go with a fuge, assuming you get a good sized wet/dry a fuge made from, or sized about 29 gallons would be perfect.
270 + ~35 + ~25 = about 310 of water, and thats a good large system if ye ask me! its also gonna give you about 20% of your show tank in filtration volume, which seems like a good percentage to me.

 

[dfimble]

I agree with the above, plus a plenum with a deep sand bed. I have a 150 with the bio balls that had continual nitrate problems. I cleaned the whole thing out, added 400 lbs of sand with the plenum and havn't been able to detect the nitrates since.
Just my 2 cents.
David

 

[grouper 42]

What does a refugium do that the bioballs won't? I am not that familiar with refugiums since I have had only FO tanks. And what is a plenum?