Wet/Dry

[hardparts2]

I have a 55 g Lake Malawi with 12 fish. I am thinking of building a wet/dry filter system, Is it worth the effort or not? What are some of the pros and cons. Also would I be able to get rid of one of the 300gph HOB I have 2

Thanks Alot Bob

[Joebo1717]

It can be worth the effort depending on how you set the wet/dry up. I to have been considering a wet/dry for my freshwater tanks for a while. I don't have a permenant housing location at the moment so building an new stand and setting up a wet/dry for my two tanks isn't a priority yet. I have always thought of havin a wet portion full of live plants and good stuff for fry and then close off the dry part in the stand so you cant see it.

[Joebo1717]

What size tank would you use for the wet/dry and you could just put the hob on the wet/dry tank. Most likely you could loose one and set the other one up for live plants

[hardparts2]

I am thinking of a 2 tank sump because of my stand and both tanks total 18 gallons.

[basicinstinct911]

nice diagram

[Joebo1717]

That is a good system i think. It should work very well for your purposes. You should try growing live plants in the tank you are going to use for return since they are supposed to cut down on nitrates. They would always be getting nice clean water and they would help in your cycle

[Syngin]

I found the homemade bucket trickle filter system listed on this page to be very helpful:

http://www.sydneycichlid.com/diy.html

[saberry]

No need to have it as two tanks - too much hassel. Just use a 30 gal or so and put the return pump in the chamber after the foam block. Also, underneath the bioballs in the submerged portion, you might put some Kent Nitrate Sponge, or Eheim sintered glass - both will help with nitrate reduction (but need to be in a low O2 environment).

[chc]

I've done a good deal of experimenting with the various nitrate reducing products (those that rely on anaerobic denitrification; cell-pore, matrix, etc.), and none showed any positive results in any of my tanks.

There are some chemical filtration options that work to a degree (PolyFilter, Chemipure), but they are expensive to use regularly. Water changes are so easy in fresh water fish keeping that I don't use chemical filtration media often.

[saberry]

I agree about the water changes. I have had good results with Nitrate sponge in my wet/dry on my SW tank; of course this product isn't immediately effective. You have to give it a few weeks. I have been looking into the sintered glass products as well.

[chc]

Nitrate Sponge...... that's a chemical media, right? I've never used it.

[saberry]

Yes, it's a zeolitic material. It absorbs ammonia and nitrate and also allow denitrification because of it high porosity.

[chc]

It's the porosity thing that doesn't seem to work in actual practice. The chemical adsorbtion/absorption (whichever) does work though.

[saberry]

I've heard good things about siporax, which is available in Europe but not in the US. It is a sintered glass like Eheims substrat but it is in large noodle form. I think maybe the larger material lends itself to better denitrification, like live rock in a marine system.

[whip]

I have been to a couple hardware stores and this is the best I can come up with.http://www.rubbermaid.com/hpd/consumer/product/detail.jhtml?prod=HPFG242600WH+CL&attributeId=HPATT1001&nextType=noValue&currentType=HPCAT02&locationId=LOC00001&thirdMenuIndex=1
Drill some holes in each drawer and the top and bottom. The top drawer will have floss or a sponge for mech filtration. The lower two drawers can have any combo of bio media. I like the idea of two seperate compartments. You can clean one tray and and still keep some of the bio load going. You could use a four tray design and have room for chemicals. Put this whole setup in another tank or container found at the rubbermaid site. Add the heater, pump and other accesories and your good to go. This my first attempt at DIY wet/dry. I'm sure it will need some fine tuning, but I think it will work well. Let me know what you think.