Biological media In sump???

[mikedawg8898]

This is going to sound really stupid but is a biological media stage even needed in a tank that has sufficient amounts of live rock in it? I have a 75 gallon FOWLR tank with about 90-100lbs of live rock. Do I even need a biological stage in my sump? Only species in the tank are a 3 inch panther grouper and a snowflake eel along with 1 Mexican turbo snail and red scarlet hermit crabs. Thanks in advance. Also I'm currently running a dump with a biological stage and protein skimmer as well as a uv sterilizer, I just bought a 40 gallon breeder that I want to make into a complete refugium with a filter sock for mechanical filtration from the water coming out of the tank

 

[fairl80z]

I use absolutely no mechanical filtration . All mine is natural . The rocks and sand are actually a biological filter

 

[SoloGarth]

Biological media In sump???

No biological stage needed in the sump.

 

[mikedawg8898]

I use absolutely no mechanical filtration . All mine is natural . The rocks and sand are actually a biological filter

Do you have a dsb then to handle nitrates? Or what's your strategy for removing nutrients from the tank

 

[fairl80z]

I have a fab and I also do water changes

 

[iced98lx]

This is going to sound really stupid but is a biological media stage even needed in a tank that has sufficient amounts of live rock in it? I have a 75 gallon FOWLR tank with about 90-100lbs of live rock.

No stupid questions. The answer is almost certainly "not required" given a decent amount of live rock in the tank like you have. Don't go pulling it all out at once though - do a little at a time if you're going to remove it. Now required vs helpful for the way you feed vs nitrates are two different discussions. A good skimmer and water changes are often viewed as a good way of handling things, though I'm not well versed in FOWLR techniques with messy fish and heavy feeding. Seems like an ATS might be a great solution there.

On a side note, if you haven't looked at long term plans for your little grouper you should do that.

 

[mikedawg8898]

No stupid questions. The answer is almost certainly "not required" given a decent amount of live rock in the tank like you have. Don't go pulling it all out at once though - do a little at a time if you're going to remove it. Now required vs helpful for the way you feed vs nitrates are two different discussions. A good skimmer and water changes are often viewed as a good way of handling things, though I'm not well versed in FOWLR techniques with messy fish and heavy feeding. Seems like an ATS might be a great solution there.

On a side note, if you haven't looked at long term plans for your little grouper you should do that.

I'm thinking of making the whole 40 gal breeder tank a refugium that drains back into the sump I already have so the pump with pump water back into the display and into the fuge which will drain back in to the original sump. As for the grouper, I already have a 150 that I plan on setting up when my grouper gets big enough and then after that I will be making a 8ftx 4 ft x 30" plywood tank that I'll set up for it. As for the refugium I'm thinking of stocking it with a ton of chaeto and then an ATS like you suggested, basically I want to be able to rely less on water changes for nutrient export and have a nice clean system with low to as close to zero nitrates and phosphates as possible