wet/dry or sump

[macgyver666]

i have a 55gal freshwater with fish and plants
i have a wet/dry setup on it now and would like to know if a wet/dry or sump would work better
also would like to know the best way to seup the media in ether the wet/dry or sump

 

[dr_sudz]

A wet dry is a sump. there are two ways of setting it up but a wet/dry helps with oxygenating the water. If you are to go with wet only it would provide only bacterial place to grow. With the "dry" part it allows the bacteria to work more efficiently as it is an aerobic process to convert the cycle through the stages. Having the plants though changes things in that they will eat up a lot of the nutrients even before they go through the stages. ether would work well with your set-up.

 

[macgyver666]

if i went with wet only what is a good way to set it up

 

[dr_sudz]

Are you starting the sump from scratch? If you had your water enter below surface level it would prevent splashing noise, then have the water go up and over the side through floss/foam/media then into a chamber with heaters, then to the pump.

 

[Toby_H]

A sump is simply a seperate container below the display tank that is used as a filter...

A Wet/Dry is utilizing media above the water line allowing water to fall over it which allows the bacteria growing on the media to have access to the oxygen in the air as well as the oxygen in the water...

Any sump can be used as a wet/dry... most (but not all) wet drys are part of a sump...


I've kept a lot of tanks over a lot of years... and every tank I've owned had absolutely no problem supplying enough oxygen to the bacteria to process the ammonia into nitrates. Therefoer in my exerience Wet/Drys are not in any way needed...

If you do choose to use one I highly suggest you offer thorough mechanical filtration to the water prior to putting it into the Wet/Dry aspect of the filter.