psumba
I'm by far no expert on reef tanks, but many on this board and elsewhere have been getting away from using a true wet/dry filtration system for REEF tanks. Wet/dry's are very efficient system's. The aerobic bacteria - Nitrosomonas & Nitrobacters - that convert your ammonia to nitrite, then to nitrate do so very effectivly, due to the immediate available oxygen gas presednt. But problem arises in the filter media, be it bioballs or DLS material or whatever. This media, if not cleaned very often allows a build up of nitrates, which remains in the system, and over time cause your tank nitrates to continue to rise. Large water changes are required to remove this nitrate.
Because wet/dry's are so good at converting wastes to nitrate ( lot's of oxygen present ) there is no place to harbor the denitrifying anaerobic bacteria - Denitrobacillus and others. Under anaerobic conditions, these bacteria reduce nitrate for energy. Without these bacteria, nitrate concentrations continue to rise beyond what is desired in a reef tank. Normally, most wet/dry's do not have these low oxygen areas incorporated into their designs.
So .........
Many reefers now agree that using a combination porous live rock, and a DSB deep sand bed, along with a good protein skimmer is the HOT SET UP for reef tanks. Large amounts of live rock have huge surface area for your aerobic bacteria to live, and deep within the pore of the rock, there are low oxygen areas for the denitrifying bacteria. Very similar situation using the deep sand bed as well. Both aerobic and anaerobic conditions are present - which allow for a more complete nitrogen cycle to occur. Plus the sandbed does not allow for much detritus, excess food waste, and crap from working it's way down into the substrate, as crushed coral does.
The end result is very low to immeasurable amounts of nitrate left in the system.
The denitrfying bacteria consume the existing nitrate - and the byproduct is nitrogen gas that escapes from the system.
It's GONE
Wet/dry's can be noisy - I have one still on both my tanks. I've removed the bioballs over the last 3-4 months - slowly eliminating them from the system.
I prefer Figi live rock over some others I've bought. Others seem very dense whereas the Figi is very light, and has some beautiful corraline algae present.
I'm going to leave the live sand description to someone else. I already feel like I've typed to much LOL
Good luck
Oh yeah - just to let ya know - I've only recently changed over to the DSB approach. There are a lot of good folks on this board that I respect - and most all of them have already done this change over. Most all of them have been reporting excellent results, and a much easier, natural approach to REEF tank water quality control.
Broomer
