Wet-dry to refugium

[fredflyer]

have a 55 gal. salt tank and I am moving from FO towards a reef tank. It has a wet-dry filter with bio-balls. I get the impression that the wet-dry is not exactly a good thing for a reef tank. Can I convert this to a refugium somehow? Like remove the bio-balls and put in live rock, sand, plants; put a light on it, etc. The other option would be pull out the wet-dry and put in a store-bought or DIY 10 gallon tank made into a refugium. Of course replacing the wet-dry would involve a complete tear down of the tank in order to move the base out to get the wet-dry out and refugium in. Also can I make or get a refugium for under $100? Any opinions; advise?
_________________
FredFlyer
55 gallon FO salt tank (moving toward reef )
55 gallon fresh community tank
55 gallon fresh oscar tank
35 gallon fresh angel tank

[Rick2203]

yo could turn it into a refugium thats not a problem just make sure you take out the bio balls thats pretty much it, theres alot of people that do this

[Jeremy_holt]

You should be able to convert this into a refugium. One thing about removing the bio balls is that it should be done in increments. Don't remove all of the bio balls at one time. Could cause a large spike in your water and initiate a cycle. Remove a group at a time every week for a few weeks. Good Luck:)

[jackets22]

Question. To expand on the topic if you dont mind.

If you put LR in the bio ball area the live rock will not be submurged under water correct? Shouldnt it be submurged and not just have water trickling over it? And if you do not add anything to the refugium do you actually even need a light?

Thanks

[cpl40475]

no if you add nothing you dont actually need the light. The rock needs to be covered by water at all times.

[fredflyer]

So, after I (over time) remove all of the bio-balls; I shouldn't replace them with live rock since they wouldn't be submerged, only trickled over; then what's doing the filtering? Are you saying remove the balls and run the thing empty?

[Fedcopmike]

Fill wet dry to level where water is covering rock, filter becomes full sump.

[seapug]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11677323#post11677323 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fedcopmike
Fill wet dry to level where water is covering rock, filter becomes full sump.

+1 on this. That is really all you have to do. You can get more elaborate with baffles, sand, lights, and chaeto but you can get benefit from just removing the bioballs and submerging live rock. Don't bother putting the balls in with the live rock. The surface of the rocks will do the Aerobic filtration, interior of the rocks does anaerobic filtration. That's all you need & want.

[indydog1]

use caution adding water volume to cover the sand and live rock.
because if you have a power outage and the water drains back into the sump, you will not have enough holding capacity to accomodate the extra water.

[seapug]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11678090#post11678090 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by indydog1
use caution adding water volume to cover the sand and live rock.
because if you have a power outage and the water drains back into the sump, you will not have enough holding capacity to accomodate the extra water.

Good advice whether you are using live rock in the sump or not! That's rule #1 of sump plumbing.

There's usually at least a few inches of water in a sump, which is plenty of space to submerge a few smallish rocks. The volume you gain by removing the biomedia usually offsets what the rocks take up.

[fredflyer]

bump?

[fredflyer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11677323#post11677323 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fedcopmike
Fill wet dry to level where water is covering rock, filter becomes full sump.

OK I've removed the evil bio-balls. Do I need lighting on this sump if I put live rock in it?

[Tswifty]

I made a sump/fuge for under $50 out of a 20g long tank.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/16544920g_Sump_Hardware.jpg

[Tswifty]

After I installed that... I wanted more room for a larger fuge, so removed the refugium and seperated it by purchasing a 10g tote for $3 at Lowes and putting in a cheap bulkhead to connect it to my sump.

This is all under my 55g.

Later the space in the middle that the old fuge was in will probably be turned into a mineral mud/mango area.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/165449New_Filtration_System.jpg

[Aquarist007]

this one costs about fifty bucks--no pump--gravity fed:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/reefescapetangster/IMG_4527.jpg

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11740166#post11740166 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tswifty8
After I installed that... I wanted more room for a larger fuge, so removed the refugium and seperated it by purchasing a 10g tote for $3 at Lowes and putting in a cheap bulkhead to connect it to my sump.

This is all under my 55g.

Later the space in the middle that the old fuge was in will probably be turned into a mineral mud/mango area.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/165449New_Filtration_System.jpg

excellent setup tswifty8 you might be interested in this thread if you are considering mangroves:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1207565

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11676405#post11676405 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fredflyer
have a 55 gal. salt tank and I am moving from FO towards a reef tank. It has a wet-dry filter with bio-balls. I get the impression that the wet-dry is not exactly a good thing for a reef tank. Can I convert this to a refugium somehow? Like remove the bio-balls and put in live rock, sand, plants; put a light on it, etc. The other option would be pull out the wet-dry and put in a store-bought or DIY 10 gallon tank made into a refugium. Of course replacing the wet-dry would involve a complete tear down of the tank in order to move the base out to get the wet-dry out and refugium in. Also can I make or get a refugium for under $100? Any opinions; advise?
_________________
FredFlyer
55 gallon FO salt tank (moving toward reef )
55 gallon fresh community tank
55 gallon fresh oscar tank
35 gallon fresh angel tank

set up the separate fuge like some of the pics above gut the wet dry filter and run carbon in it--very effective for running carbon--the water is forced through the entire medium--can go around the edges so there is more carbon surface area exposed to the water column for adsorption.:smokin:

[papagimp]

I agree with the previous couple posts, you could easily make/create your own custom sump/refugium for well under $100 bucks, but at the same time, it's an easy conversion to turn the wet/dry into a sump/fuge. altough making your own will probably turn out to be far more effective than having to work around what was already designed for something else entirely.

btw, water trickling over the rocks will still filter, but exactly like a wet/dry filter would. The rock does not "require" lighting at all, the lights for the macroaglae alot of people stick in their fuges.

[Tswifty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11740501#post11740501 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by capn_hylinur
excellent setup tswifty8 you might be interested in this thread if you are considering mangroves:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1207565
I'll definately check it out... yeah thanks... I believe you helped me out quite a bit when I was setting it up. haha

[fredflyer]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Now that the bio-balls are out, I'll just toss some liverock rubble in the bottom of the sump. I may eventually go for that fuge setup like Tswifty8 made....