Wet dry with no bioballs

[leopard_babe]

So I have been doing research all over again.
Instead of bioballs in my wet dry filter what can I use??
In my wet dry where the bioballs are at Can I put liverock there instead??
Or is a wet dry made so that you can only have bioballs?
Thank you!!!

 

[salt210]

you can use LR but you will still have to clean it

 

[leopard_babe]

wouldn't that cause the liverock to recycle???

 

[tizzo]

I put LR in mine with a filter floss pad over it, which I wash out as often as I remember.
Problem lies in that the sump made for bioballs is not made for LR in that it's not easy to get it in place. I had to cut my sump to make it more to what I wanted.

 

[fcatch76]

It would depend on how you purchased the LR (cured or not). I just went through this and asked the help of other board members. If you buy cured and keep it wet until you place in tank you will be ok. I personally removed my bioballs and replaced with LR, but then realized the LR is only rubble and won't do its job as intended.
Some pics to give you some idea- removed false floor from bottom of chamber two- placed filter padding half way across and placed it higher- then fill the entire area for more water, I also use Chemipure and Purigen. Chem is in chamber 2 hanging from false floor, purigen is in CPR. The whiter rock is my newly added rock- roughly two weeks old.

Pics with CPR fuge w/skimmer attached:

 

[leopard_babe]

Thank you that helps. I am starting from scratch and doing everything 100% the right way this time. I just bough 45 lbs of rock from swf.com yay!!!! I have to cycle my whole tank, so it will start off in a tank that is going through a cycle.
Anyone else have pix of their sumps??

 

[tfb05]

Bio-balls are not bad, they just have a tendency to accumulate debris, which can lead to an environment that has high nitrates. If your live rock gets junk on it as well, it could potentially cause the same problems.
If you have a FO or FOWLR tank, then some nitrates isn't the end of the world. Keeping reef inhabitants is another story. Just make sure that the bio-balls are kept relatively clean. Rinse them in used tank water and only do 1/4 of the balls every couple weeks.
For LR, it is always better to have it in your tank with good water flow. If you do want to add some to the wet/dry, make sure that it is submerged and do a saltwater rinse with that as well every once in a while. IMO, rubble works just as well and most fish stores will give you a deal on it.

 

[fcatch76]

I learned the rubble doesn't have enough surface area to house your anaerobic digesters. That is why I went my route..MHO

 

[tfb05]

Depends on the what you refer to as rubble. If you are talking about pieces smaller than the diameter of a quarter, I would agree. Pieces bigger than that would be fine.

 

[pastor b.]

Dear hobbyists , there was a time when I had bio balls in my wet/dry,but they became full of detritus and caused nitrate spikes . Finally a friend at a lfs said to try some rubble rock which they were out of,so he said to take a piece of lr and hit it with a hammer until you're satisfied the pieces that you have ,then place them inside of your wet/dry on the biological side .I did tried it, and now I don't get high nitrate readings .

 

[spanko]

IMO put live rock in your dispaly. In the wet dry fill the area with Chaetomorph with a light over the top. Great nutrient export. When it grows to fill the area, pull half of it out, sell it and let the rest grow again. Keep doing this over and over and you will have a great nutrient export system as well as an area for copepods to proliferate.

 

[leopard_babe]

yeah I have been doing alot of reading today and I don't want to put bioballs in there. I think I will try the lr thing.
I don't know anything about Chaetomorph. I am guessing it is a plant? What kind of light??
If your tank is like that do you have a pix. I am just trying to get an idea.
Thanks for the help everyone!!

 

[fcatch76]

Originally Posted by Leopard_babe
http:///forum/post/2750779
yeah I have been doing alot of reading today and I don't want to put bioballs in there. I think I will try the lr thing.
I don't know anything about Chaetomorph. I am guessing it is a plant? What kind of light??
If your tank is like that do you have a pix. I am just trying to get an idea.
Thanks for the help everyone!!
The chaeto (key-toe) is a macro algae that helps with Nitrates, people sell it here for $10 to $12 for a ziploc bag. My LFS had a larger bag for $10. It is definately worth grabbing some and throwing it in the back (chamber 2) and I think it is "Spanko" who uses the Azoo palm light to keep it growing.
HTH

 

[fcatch76]

Hey, that was my 50th post...I'm official, now I can post on selling threads..

.......Now, if only I had something to sell

 

[leopard_babe]

thank you for that info!!! I think that I am definately going to try that. When I had plants in my old tank my water was beautiful!!!

 

[vince-1961]

I am new at this and probably am not doing it right, but I'm learning. Here's photo of my sump. This photo was taken before I switched the two 12" x 12" sponges on top of the drip plate with the white polyester fill. The water flow is from right to left as follows:
First chamber is 12"x12" (entire sump is 21" tall): polyester fill, drip plate, 12"x 12" x 1" black sponge with large holes laid on top of lava rock, 6" of lava rock above water line, 9" of lava rock below water line, under/over baffle to second chamber.
Second chamber is a refugium: 12" x 4" x 4" sponge on top of the over baffle, refugium containing Cheato with a light 24/7, over/under/over baffle containing a 12" x 12" x 1" sponge to prevent anything from "escaping" the refugium, some bags of silicates/phosphate remover
Third chamber is the reservoir, where I have a heater and also place the protein skimmer on top of a black plastic crate with thru-flow holes, just to raise the protein skimmer up, so the drain is all down hill over the lip of the sump. Then to the main pump.
Tee off the main pump deflects some water back to protein skimmer, which is then poured out on top of the sponge between the wet/dry and the refugium. Then return line is tee'd off again, one for left return, one for right return. There is a UV light on the right return. It is after the right/left Tee in order to reduce the amount of water which flows through it and the speed at which it flows through, so that the water will be slow enough for it to work.
There is no sound of falling or running water with this set up, as long as I keep up with the 4 gallon daily top off. (yes, I lose 4 gallons per day to evaporation!) Am working on an automatic top off system. The photo was taken when I was about a gallon low, as you can see by the last "over" baffle on the left. I prefer to keep the water line above the baffles.
Some folks say not to use lava rock, but I intend to give it a try for a while to see how it does. I like the idea that it will grow anaerobic bacteria deep inside above the water line. This weekend, I will be making on own D.I.Y. rock out of crushed oyster shell and perhaps some beach sand thrown in. If it works out well (after two months of cure time), I might just design some specifically for use as wet/dry filter media.
Attachment 208154

 

[leopard_babe]

That looks like a great set up. I would love to know how that works out for you!! I wish I could be crafty. I failed show in middle school. lo0l

 

[spanko]

Here is how I have mine set up.

 

[vince-1961]

In the thread "Consensus on Lava Rock", there was a suggestion to use a mix of large and small (rubble-sized) pieces of live rock as the filter media for the wet/dry.