Looking for creative wet/dry conversion ideas

[M.E.Milz]

I have an acrylic sump that has a wet/dry portion that will no longer be used after I complete the removal of the remaining bio-media. In particular, the center section of the sump has a trickle plate that is fed by water diverted from my return pumps. In other words, a portion of the water passing through the sump is recirculated back to the wet/dry section of the sump.

After I finish removing the remaining bio-material, this section of the sump (which measures 16"x12"x12") and the trickle plate will become useless (other than to serve as overflow capacity). I am therefore looking for ideas on alternative uses for this section of the sump. So far, I have come-up with the following:

1) Do nothing - that is, shut off the feed to the trickle plate and let this area remain empty.

2) Fill this section with live rock (discussed in a separate thread). However, it has been suggested that the live rock will not add any benefits to my system since the rock will stay above the waterline and anaerobic activity will be minimal.

3) Build some sort of algae turf scrubber. I don't know much about these, but I am investigating.

4) Fill this area with macros. I don't think this will work unless there are macros that will grow in a wet, but not submerged, environment.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

By the way, this sump is connected to a 175 FO tank with lots of live rock and a DSB (that is still developing). The tank is home to some big eaters (morays, triggers, puffers, etc), so I can use all of the nutrient export I can get.

Mike

 

[beemert]

well, here is what i did.
depending on the orientation, my pipe from the overflow enters on the left into the filter. the center compartment held the balls. i removed the balls and put in an in sump skimmer. the pump for the skimmer is in the left compartment. the gap at the bottom of the right side of the center compartment gets sealed and the top of that same divider gets shortened. the water will then rise in the center compartment (which has been packed with small pieces of live rock) around the skimmer submerging the live rock and flow over the right side of the center compartment into the return pump compartment.
make sense?
bruce

 

[M.E.Milz]

Interesting idea, but it won't work for my set-up because I have an ETS skimmer driven by an external pump, both of which are connected to the end of the sump via bulkheads. The ETS skimmer will not function properly if I raise the waterline in the sump too high.

 

[AlexS!]

mine is awesome, removed drip tray so water flows over. then goes into 6-7" refugium. water flows throught teeth into return area! use plexiglass for partions

 

[Squidman]

Not to bash your idea's,or to step on anybody's toes,but all of you are so quick to get rid of your bio media.Here is a little information on having bio media with reef.Yes live rock does provide biological filtration, but it also adds to the overall bioload of the tank.You want to remove the ammonia and nitrite out of a tank,as quickly
as possible.Having the biomedia provides rapid removal.
The big monster everybody is afraid of is the production of Nitrate.If you use a sandbed you will be able to use your biomedia without the worry of nitrate.Here are pics of my reef tank, and the filtration/with the biomedia. I do little water changes.With the algae on the live rock you don't need to design nutrient export systems. Here are pics of my tank.100 gallon reef

 

[M.E.Milz]

First things first. I never said the bio-media was a problem, or that it will cause my nitrates to skyrocket (although that has been my experience with one of my FOWLR tanks before adding a DSB). And I do know how to run a reef tank (pic's of my 200 were posted a few months back) without any measuarable nitrates. But in this particular tank (a 175), I probably have 150 lbs of live rock and a 4"-6" very fine deep sand bed. I therefore feel that the relatively small amount of bio-media that is in my sump has very little impact on the filtering capacity of my system. Removing it will have very little, if any, negative impact on the tank.

My concern is not so much that the bio-media is causing a problem, but that it has very little benefit to my system. What I am looking to do is re-design my sump so that I can improve my ability to remove nutrients, either by anaerobic break down of nitrates, or by growing and harvesting algaes. Along those lines, I think Dave's sugggestions are very good. But I would still like to kick around a few more ideas.

 

[davelin315]

I am in some agreement with the last post. Biomedia in your wet dry will not necessarily cause your nitrate to sky rocket. I have a wet dry hooked up to a pond that is currently being used as a temporary hospital area, and then will be torn down. I will put the wet dry on my new pond after that (check it outPond Page). However, while it was being used before, it housed 2 sharks before, a nurse shark and a wobbegong shark. The filtration consisted of an older model Oceanic Trickle and live rock (cultured in my reef tank). I will tell you that sharks are pigs and eat a lot (the nurse shark ate quite a few of its roommates until I learned that nurse sharks are not the docile creatures that people make them out to be, in fact, they will eat anything that will fit in their mouths, and even some things that won't like blue dot sting rays), and therefore, create a lot of waste. The water quality in this pond was always very good as a result of the dual filtration, with nitrates always hovering at less than 10 ppm, which for a fish only housing 2 sharks 3 feet in length and 2.5 feet in length is pretty damn good.

HOWEVER, if you are going to remove the biomedia, just do it and don't mess with the drip plate. The drip plate creates an area where the water is being agitated to a higher degree than anywhere else in your tank. In fact, my suggestion is that you place a vent on your drip area as this will further aid in the oxygenation of your tank. If you are going with the refugium idea as well, place it before the drip plate, as oxygenated water will then run through the drip plate, further oxygenating it, and also, allowing some other gasses to be released through the turbulence. It might be a little noisy, but it will improve the quality of your water returning to the main area by leaving the drip plate in place. That is what I currently have on my reef tank, an Oceanic without biomedia, and the drip plate allows for excellent gas exchange to take place in the sump, where it should be taking place.

If you really want to fill it, don't place live rock in the bottom of your sump, put some base rock in there like large chunks of tufa mixed in with a lot of rubble pieces, which will create somewhat stagnant areas in your sump. There is no need for you to put live rock there as anything photosynthetic will die off anyway, and it will eventually become seeded with the life from your tank that can handle the dark. By putting the large chunks of rock in there surrounded by smaller pieces of rubble, you will allow a sponge filter to grow in your sump. The sponges will not populate areas of high water flow, but they will populate the semi-stagnant areas, and then help the water flow through their filtration. This will also provide an area where detritus will gather and readily break down through the aid of sump inhabitants and the highly oxygenated area. If you really want to get fancy, throw in some clams (not tridacna) and they will further aid in the filtration. If you are going to utilize this method, don't put any sand or gravel in there, as it will IMO hinder the purpose behind the filter.

[ September 07, 2001: Message edited by: davelin315 ]