Live rock in the sump ?

fuax

fuax

Member
OK I have had salt and freshwater tanks for just over 20 years. BUT I am from an older school of thought when it comes to filtering the tank with a wet/dry system.
I have been doing some research on taking the BIO-BALLS (Please i dont not need a lecture on how bio-balls hold debris and can cause nitrate spikes and such) out of my wet/dry and putting live rock in its place. (still very nervous about doing it)
My question is how viable is it in filtering the tank ? Does the live rock need to have a light source on it, if it is in the sump of the wet/dry (the wet/dry currently has only 4 to 6 inches of water in it at any given time)? And what about carbon to help remove the smells and discoloration of the water?
I currently have a 150 gal fish only tank with about 80lbs plus of live rock in it and a SSB.
I have a home made (very simple) refuge system. No protien skimmer at this time will be adding one this weekend.
I know this board can and does have a lot of opinions about this hobby which is great sometimes but i am looking for some factual information.
Thanks in advance for the help.
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
i have seen people do it. Also, many people have live rock in their refugiums. Live rock needs a light source for macroalgaes and htings on there, but not for the benificial bacteria that is on it. So light would not be needed to filter your tank.
 
darth tang

darth tang

Active Member
I was going to mention, if you aren't having problems with your system, why would you change it? If it ain't broke don't fix it is a great motto.
 
fuax

fuax

Member
Well you know "SOMETIMES NEWER CAN BE BETTER" (newer technology that is) but in this case I must agree the set up i have now is purdy sweet and seems to be working great.
BTW I got the new skimmer today as well a coral life super skimmer 125
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
awsome!! i have the 65 on my 40 gallon. For some reason im having a lot of trouble getting the flow adjusted though... wherever i put it it always overflows into the collection cup.... and it never did before... hmmm
 
fuax

fuax

Member
How long have you had it I was reading the instructions (I know I am a guy and I really shouldn't be reading instructions but I had a lapse in judgement) and it said to let is run for 24 to 48 hours before setting to the flow rate you want . I guess it is just a way of maturing the unit !
 
speg

speg

Active Member
The way I did my sump is I put half bio-balls and half live rock. I have seen the LFS here done with all live rock for their setup and they swear that they are better to use than bioballs.
Nothing at all wrong with taking the balls out and putting rock in their place.. except you'll have to grow the bacteria on the rocks since the balls are out.. and you'll probably cause a ammonia spike if you're not careful.
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
yeah, ive hadmine for a few weeks now. maybe jsut over a month or so.works great, but i cant seem to get the water level to the right spot without it overflowing
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Anyone who is critical of someone's filtration just because they use a wet/dry (esp bioballs) is perhaps not the most experienced voice to listen to. IMO, a wet/dry is a great choice for large FO systems - especially if it happens to be predators. In that case it is perhaps the only way to go, IMO. If people think public aquaria with their HUGE FO systems are only using refugiums, LR and skimmers I've got news for ya....
Wet/dry filters are tried and true and have one primary drawback - they are highly efficient at what they do. They are a perfect design for their purpose. That is the drawback. It most cases I would rather have a nitrate issue than an ammonia issue. I probably wouldn't run one on an SPS reef tank but then I wouldn't have much bioload anyway. In your situation I would absolutely have some form of a wet/dry going. :yes:
FWIW, however, replacing it with LR rubble is not all that different. There is no light needed - they are merely porous substrate for bacteria to grow (like bioballs). But I am also of the opinion of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." :yes:
 
fuax

fuax

Member
I am of the same thought that if it isn't broke dont fix it, but at the same time you can not be stagnated you need to look at newer technology and newer ways of doing things to see if it is viable for you to use which is what I was doing. I in the end looked at my system and weighted the pro's and con's and figured that what I have works better then a live rock wet/dry system.
My reasoning was that if i put lr in my wet/dry even if I was able to fill it with lr that was all the same size there would be more "dead spots" (areas where the ditritus would build) then the bio-balls because the holes of the rock would catch it where the bio-balls just let it run through so that my new ubar skimmer (which is really nasty btw haven't had one in a long time forgot how disgusting the stuff is they pull out) can catch it .
I AM NOT SAYING LR IS BETTER THEN BIO-BALLS NOR AM I SAYING BIO-BALLS ARE BETTER THEN LR they both have there place I am choosing to use both bio-balls in the wet/dry and lr in the refuge and display.
Again it all boils down to research research reseach which is why I asked my first question
And thank you all for the info you provided me on this thread and on the threads i did a seach on.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Faux -
Did you ever add that refugium?.
Yeah I know I'm about 20 days old on this thread but didn't see it until now. I'm glad to see you didn't repalce the bio balls with rock, it just isn't the most agreeable thing to do unless you were to submerge the rock.
However, if you have the fuge up and in place and it is of sufficiant size to take over the duties of converting the ammonia, nitrites and even completing the process of converting nitrates then you may if you choose remove the bio balls slowly.
When I set up my 55 gallon refugium on the 90 gallon tank, I slowly removed my bio balls and am without them now. Everything working very well.
Thomas
 
mr_bill

mr_bill

Active Member
I run bio-balls in my wet/dry with LR in the fuge portion. You can get alot of the little pieces of LR for pretty cheap, I like to bargain with my LFS since he says he hardly sells the baseball sized stuff. :yes:
 
fuax

fuax

Member
Thomas I just relooked at this thread I am sorry I did not post sooner.
I went with a homemade refuge made it out of a rubbermaid container works great (water is pumped out of the wet/dry into the refuge and then overflows back into the sump area near the return pump)
I am using it in conjuction with my wet/dry system (bio balls) and my skimmer. Tank is doing great, readings are at zero refuge is growing slow but nicely and everyone is happy.
Again sorry I did not check back at this post to respond back to you
Shoot me an email and I can send you pics of the set up gunman1@bellsouth.net
Take a look under the thread "refugium, is it needed" i put some pics on there alil while ago.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Thanks for the reply, I'll check that thread out.
Glad to hear its working well for you
 
1968oldsma

1968oldsma

Member
thats a nice setup cheap and easy i'm looking to do something along those lines for my 55 not sure how i want to approach this yet.
 
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