Wet/Dry with Needlewheel Pump

[greenmonkey51]

Before I get jumped this is not for a salt tank. Looking at my protein skimmer I got an idea. Current technology for wet/drys or biowheels consists of just exposing the media to air. I was wondering if you took a standard NW protein skimmer packed it full of ceramic media and let it overflow if you would get better results than a standard wet/dry. In this model every possible square millimeter of media would get hit by super oxygenated water all the time instead of allowing water to just drip by the media following the path of least resistance and not using all of your media efficiently. I may start working on a prototype soon.

 

[coolfish5]

If you look up moving bed bioreactors they work on a similar principle. In commercial aquaculture, or I suppose large ponds, it uses submerged plastic media that floats. The sump is very turbulent so the media circulates and they add heavy aeration to the sump as well. Works quite well and the media is self cleaning due to the movement.

You might try look it that up on aquaticeco.com.

I would be concerned with accumulation of waste using ceramic media packed into a skimmer body, unless you have a good prefilter on the incoming water.

 

[greenmonkey51]

My thought would be putting it in a sump after a couple filters.