What To Put In The Sump!?!?!?

[comfort_racing]

OK, I HAVE AN ACRYLIC SUMP WHERE MY RETURN FROM MY OVERFLOW GOES INTO THEN INTO A ETSS 600 BECKETT SKIMMER WHICH IS DIRECTLEY RETURNED THRU THE WALL OF THE SUMP THEN UP TO A SCWD AND BACK IN THE TANK. WELL THE SUMP HAS BIO-BALLS IN THE 10"X10" RETURN AREA. I AM TAKING THEM OUT AFTER EXTENSIVE READIGN ON THIS FORUM. QUESTION, NOW WHAT DO I PUT IN ITS PLACE? MAYBE SOME NITRATE ABSORBING MEDIA OR CARBON OR WHAT?

I AM SETTING UP A 75 FOWLR WITH 80-100 POUNDS OF LIVE ROCK.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!


CHAD

 

[drummereef]

You might be able to throw some Chaeto in there, with proper baffles, but it looks like it would take some diys skills to make it happen. And you'll need a way to light it for it to grow. Definitely remove the bio-balls now while you have a chance. My only other suggestion would be to put a media bag with a cup or two of carbon in there.

 

[SaltTinker]

You do not need anything in its place.

 

[comfort_racing]

if i put nothing in its place then the issue would be salt splash and noise. so i'd just come up with a unique way to lower the plumbing in the return then.

i saw some nitrate absorb stuff at a lfs, is that crap?

 

[Jocko]

Live rock, baby. No light needed. You can be on the cutting edge with a nice, simple cryptic zone. It will add more processing ability to your system which will make it more stable.

 

[Teknagen]

You can toss some rubble rock in there if a baffle was made.

 

[papagimp]

I would add the blue sponge filter back to the mid section there to help with mechanical filtration (if your wet/dry came with one of those, mine did and it looks like the same sump) And add some cheato and/or live rock to that compartment in question. Basically would give you a refugium/sump setup. Very beneficial. But you don't HAVE to have anything there. The benfit though to having cheato or some other form of macro algae is natural nitrate and phosphate reduction and cheato is an awesome place for grammarus shrimp (amphipods) to congregate and breed, although they tend to breed in the sand/rock area's, but mine did fine with just cheato for a year before I decided to add sand/rock to my fuge.