Any use for Wet/Dry?

[Bluetooth]

Sorry for the newb question in advance.

I am in the process of setting up my first saltwater tank, 150 gal. Most filtration related threads I read pertain to reef tanks. In a fish only system, is a combination of Live Rock with Wet/Dry a good idea, or is a set up of just Live Rock with a sump better. I am thinking the higher bioload of fish only might call for some additional biological filtration. Skimmer will be employed also.

Thanks

 

[Billybeau1]

Well here is a take from a fish only guy. I run my 72 gal with bio-balls on the sump for biological filtration. Since I dont have live rock, I have much more room in my tank for fish and a few decorations. This system has worked fine for me with regular maintenance. I do have elevated nitrates but thats not a problem for a fish only tank. I run a skimmer and uv sterilizer. Fish are happy and healthy.

You can always upgrade later. Thats my take on it - Good luck

 

[Sk8r]

I'd lose the bioballs and have rock and a deep sand bed [dsb].

 

[agilis]

I'd use the bioballs, for sure, along with live rock, frequent water changes, and the protein skimmer. That's an ideal arrangement for fish only or mainly fish with live rock aquaria. The bioballs don't really elevate the nitrates by themselves. It's a matter of bioload, so the less heavily stocked the tank, the fewer the problems with nitrates, various dissolved organics, etc. The main thing is to avoid ammonia and nitrites, and this the wet/dry bioballs do far faster and more reliably than most other methods. Deep sand filters have inherent problems of their own, and are, in my opinion, far to slow in conversion processes to cope with the sudden heavy bio loads associated with a lot of fish, and too complex in their proper maintenance requirements.

 

[Paul Burgess]

Check out Lifereef.com. He has some excellent wet/drys.

 

[SaltyMember]

I am running my 125g FOWLR for the past 4 months now with about 100lbs. of liverock, a wet/dry, and skimmer. So far it has been working out really well. Granted I only have two fish right now, a dogface puffer and a foxface. I have a Hippo tang in quarantine also. These are good sized fish that produce a lot of waste. I am glad I went with the wet/dry. With the two fish my nitrates run between 15-20ppm. I do a water change of 20 gallons every two weeks.