Wet/Dry Vs. Refugium

O.K. I'm converting my successful 55 gallon aquarium to a marine (for envious reasons) and I have done some research on both of these types of filters, and I think I could build either from a 10 to 20 gallon aquarium. I am going to go reef and fish, mostly fish at first. like any subject, the opinions vary. i would like to hear opinions as to which i should go with and why. thanks in advance for your input. :-/

 

If you have 1 - 2 lbs. of good 'live' rock in the tank per gallon, common rule of thumb is that you won't need the bioballs in the wet dry as the surface area of the rock will promote denitrifying bacteria.

However if you have less and it's mostly a fish tank, a wet/dry and a protein skimmer would be a good combo.

If you have room, you could have a refugium too as it kinda does something different than the wet/dry and they would co-exist nicely.

See the wet/dry breaks down ammonia and nitrites but leaves nitrates alone. When nitrates build up they begin to adversely affect corals and then fish.

However the refugium consumes or converts nitrates to less harmful stuff. So you could to both.

Or you could add a skimmer and blow off the refugium as the skimmer will export nutrients and reduce nitrates.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for joining 3reef!

 

I want to go one way or the other. would an ample size, 15 gallon for a 55 gallon tank, refugium do the job of bio filter? I think I understand that if my refug starts with a prefilter, has a mechanical filter at the inlet (floss or fine mesh), is baffled for a large refug area for agitation free and bubble free flow through live rock and algae or possibly live sand or miracle mud, then flows into a sump with a skimmer and a heater, then i would be doing great things for my reef water. is this not the whole truth?? or should i have both?? your insight is appreciated. just trying to get it right and i'm still in the R & D phase.
Chris

 

That sounds ok, but this is what I would change...

move the skimmer to the beginning of the chain - so that it gets raw water coming from the tank. If its at the other end, it's getting treated water and you won't get as much bang for your buck.

Also I don't see the point of a pre-filter prior to the refugium. I would put a sponge before the sump pump instead.

 

2 threads with same info? confusing

 

yep , that's why i put a link to this one in the other one.

here's the other one:
http://www.3reef.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Refugium;action=display;num=1082066287

 

Thanks Matt, i also was thinking the skimmer would do better there. when i say pre filter, i think some people refer to the cups that sit on back of tank and has slit in it for drawing water out of the main, and then down to the sump as a prefilter. im not sure of the proper name for it. i have seen at the outlet for this device some form of mesh for a mechanical filter before it flows through the baffles to the refugium. is that necessary or would the skimmer love to take care of that???
thanks for the advice

 

I am not sure what setup you are talking about.
The over flow box has a bulk head on the bottom where one would attach a short piece of PVC pipe so it is above the "U" tube that siphons water from the other box in the tank. This is made this way incase you lose electricity and your over flow box will not lose it's siphon.

The mesh would go around the PVC pipe to keep your critter safe from being sucked down into the sump or refugium and also any large chunks of hair algae that may find it's way into the over flow.

I personally use the round tall sponge which also captures any extra food and hair algae before it get into my blue floss pad that captures things before they get to the skimmer area and much easier to replace then a single sponge would be if that was all you had before the skimmer.

After the water makes it's way down through the blue floss pad I have a sponge that captures anything else missed by the others during filter pad changes etc.. I change this sponge ever 4 or 5 months depending on was I see coming back into the main tank.

The over flow sponge I have is the easiest to see and clean and rinsing it with RO/DI water or tap water. On my tank this is cleaned every other day or day to day depending on the crud I see on it.

 

i have seen at the outlet for this device some form of mesh for a mechanical filter before it flows through the baffles to the refugium. is that necessary or would the skimmer love to take care of that???

I don't want my skimmer pump to get clogged up so I think this is very important device to use with a sponge or the fiber stuff you see some times at the LFS. Could use the blue filter floss stuff also with a rubber band of course.