Refugium vs Wet dry

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I currently have a 220 gal display tank housing coral and fish. Im currently using a 400gal rated wetdry on my system. I am debating switiching out my wet dry for an appropriate sized refugium. I would like to utilize macro algea to produce copopods,algea for food in my display as well as the benefit of reducing nitrite/nitrate/phosphate. I am not sure what to do as i have read alot about the benefits of wetdrys to convert ammonia, as well as people who have converted to refugiums only to have problems with the ammonia cycle and end up going back to wet dry. one more thing to add-my tank overflows are filled with bio-balls(does that have wet-dry properties,or would that satisify the ammonia cycle thus being a portion of a hybrid system?)

what would you say and why?

is there such a thing as a hybrid system that utilizes both ideas? if so where would i find on?

any other ideas?

 

[noahm]

There has been a big transition away from wet/dry, and toward refugiums. The biggest single reason has been that bio-balls tend to become nitrate traps as they build up with waste etc. People who don't regularly take out a portion of the balls and clean them in SW will likely have a crash one day. If you do, you shouldn't have that problem. One solution would be to bag your bioballs in say three mesh bags and take one out every so often and give it a thorough sloshing around in a bucket of SW.

That being said, live rock is a much more effective surface as it not only hosts bacteria, but all kinds of other critters such as fan worms, pods, micro/macro alsgea etc. etc. thus creating a better long term bio-filter. A pile of reef rubble still needs flow and prevention of waste build-up though.

At the very least, I would remove any submerged bio-balls and replace them with LR rubble. Do it in phases so as not to shock the system. If it was me, I would ditch the wet/dry altogether, but not because it is a terrible thing, just to utilize the space for potentially something else.

The problem with a hybrid system is that a properly maintained W/D should be removing a majority of what the macro algae in your fuge would need to thrive. I would rather have the fuge full of bio-diversity any day. Just do a slow/moderate transition if you do change over.

There are some good discussions on refugium on wetwebmedia.com check them out and make yourself an informed decision.

Good luck.