Boosting up your Wet Dry

[redtailfool]

Do you think adding more additional bio media in a wet drys sump ( like bags of ceramic rings, legos ,bio balls or cell pore) would produce significant help in terms of biofiltration ?

I have seen a lot of japanese spec tanks in magazines with that kind of sump set up.

 

[Oddball]

There's a limit to the size filter you can run on a system. When the bio-media volume passes the bacteria population level the systems bio-load can feed, then you'll have just some expensive empty plastic in your sump.

One gallon of 1" bio-balls (75 balls) has ~160sq/ft of surface area for bacteria to adhere to. 1.2 gallons of these bio-balls will efficiently filter a 100gal tank with a "normal" uncrowded bio-load.

 

[redtailfool]

There's a limit to the size filter you can run on a system. When the bio-media volume passes the bacteria population level the systems bio-load can feed, then you'll have just some expensive empty plastic in your sump.

One gallon of 1" bio-balls (75 balls) has ~160sq/ft of surface area for bacteria to adhere to. 1.2 gallons of these bio-balls will efficiently filter a 100gal tank with a "normal" uncrowded bio-load.

Thanks Oddball by giving out that calculation, if you have a big enough wet dry, then you wont need additional bio filtration assuming the load is "normal" right?

But what if the tank is heavily stocked ( quite the norm with MFK ) ? Would a normal wet dry be adequate enough(bio filtration-wise )?

 

[Pangong_ilong]

Hmm, now that's a good question Wes. I was gonna asked you about that. Do we need to add some anti ammonia stones, lava rock etc?

 

[DeLgAdO]

i came up with the idea to line the bottom of the wet-dry biochamber with the 9x 9 x 1 cell pore bio slab, these thing have an enormous surface area. the wet-dry i intent to use has a 18 x 18 x 18, 25 gal bio chamber and i intend to line the bottom with 4 cell pore slabs and fill the rest with bio balls, so you got a super bio filter!

 

[DeLgAdO]

and its a compact idea!

no lava, or ceramic ring to clutter your sump and collect debris!!

and since its line on the bottom their is no bypass so you get 100% effective filteration

 

[Oddball]

Thanks Oddball by giving out that calculation, if you have a big enough wet dry, then you wont need additional bio filtration assuming the load is "normal" right?

But what if the tank is heavily stocked ( quite the norm with MFK ) ? Would a normal wet dry be adequate enough(bio filtration-wise )?

I'm in the same boat with some of my fish. General rule of thumb in my fish building is "One Step Higher" on filter ratings. My 150s have 200gal filters, the 240s have 300gal filters. My messiest fish go even higher. Like, the RTC in the 450 has a 1200gal rated filter.

 

[Oddball]

i came up with the idea to line the bottom of the wet-dry biochamber with the 9x 9 x 1 cell pore bio slab, these thing have an enormous surface area. the wet-dry i intent to use has a 18 x 18 x 18, 25 gal bio chamber and i intend to line the bottom with 4 cell pore slabs and fill the rest with bio balls, so you got a super bio filter!

That cell-pore is amazing material. It's sure a long way from the days we used smashed flowerpots, plastic army men, and transformer insulator ceramic rings in our wet/drys.

 

[ROSS]

That cell-pore is amazing material. It's sure a long way from the days we used smashed flowerpots, plastic army men, and transformer insulator ceramic rings in our wet/drys.

your a crazy guy oddball, but if it comes from your mouth I'll belive it , now I have a use for my old he-man and GIjoe figure's don't worry the starwar's one's are deffanetly stayin in the case!

 

[Ornatapinnis]

I do a couple things that I have been happy with. If the bio balls you are using are from Lee's, they can be pinned together into rows. It's very time consuming but after dumping in a box of io balls and filling the bio chamber full then removing them and pinning them together, i was able to fit close to 25% more balls in my filter. I also put air stone under the bio balls, this increases the amount of air that bacteria has and increases thier activity. Adding slabs of cell pore helps too but it traps dirt very well and will need rinced every few months. I have seveal slabs in my sumps so I rince one one month and the other the next in an effert to not disturb to much bacteria at a time.

I use about a cubic gallon of bio balls per 20 gallons of aquarium water on salt water and normally the same on fresh water, espcially on messy fish. I suggest to turn the tank over no less than 4 times per hour. I turn my systems over many time more per hour than 4 but I have found the average. properly stocked aquarium will work at 4 times (IE; 100 gallon aquarium needs a pump that moves 400 gallon per hour)

Joel