Wet Dry with Live Rocks?

[AquaWave523]

Ok, after researching, I realized if I have Live Rocks, it's almost pointless to have the wet/dry filter since the Live Rocks provide bio filtration....so I can use the sump tank for moving the water around and hiding my equipment. Aside from that, can anyone tell me how I can make more use of my wet/dry filter? If i remove the bio balls, what can I do with the rest of the sump tank?

[divewsharks]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15280001#post15280001 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AquaWave523
Ok, after researching, I realized if I have Live Rocks, it's almost pointless to have the wet/dry filter since the Live Rocks provide bio filtration....so I can use the sump tank for moving the water around and hiding my equipment. Aside from that, can anyone tell me how I can make more use of my wet/dry filter? If i remove the bio balls, what can I do with the rest of the sump tank?

yes you can use the sump to house equipment. What do you mean by moving the water around?
you can also take out the bio balls and replace with live rock, just after doing so (slowly) bring the water level up in the sump so that the rock is completely underwater. you could also put chaeto in your sump if you have room. what you can do down there, really depends on how much space you have have and what you want to accomplish. where is your protein skimmer currently?

[AquaWave523]

I currently have a protein skimmer a super skimmer from CoraLife for 125 gallons.

So what's the purpose for putting a live rock down there? I currently plan to just have live rock and fish only.

I guess I could use it as a refugium down there and produce food for certain fish? I just want fish compatible with the false percula clown fish.

[AquaWave523]

Ah, just took a peak at my Wet/dry sump tank and realize there's a egg crate at the bottom of the bio balls and there's a prefilter above the bio balls. I dont know what to do, should I just leave it alone and let the water fall down?

By moving the water around, meaning turning the water over in the tank creating aeration.

[divewsharks]

you should be able to pretty easily remove the prefilter and egg crate. put rock down there just gives more places for natural filtration, if you plan on a fuge, then you want slower current in the sump, and use power heads or a CL for water movement in the display.
Do you already have the Occellaris Clowns in the tank? If yes, depending on for how long they have had the tank to themselves they can be aggressive to newcomers. Long as the new fish is of similar size and can hold its own, then you should be ok.

[ackee]

Live rock and the bioballs in a trickle filter are not equivalent or duplicative. Bioballs, properly set up, are much more efficient at quickly removing ammonia and nitrite, an important consideration if you have large fish, or a large number of fish. This is why some people call them nitrate factories. This misleading term simply means that the trickle filter quickly converts toxic waste into much less toxic nitrate. It can only do so if a lot of waste is being produced

Live rock will convert ammonia and nitrate , but the process is much slower. A good trickle filter is more immediate. Live rock will also do several things bioballs will not. For example, the interior of a fairly large porous reef rock can function much like a deep sand bed, and keep nitrates down to levels lower than they would otherwise be, all things considered. Protein skimmers, working properly, partially eliminate the whole transformative process.

I use all three on my large fish and invert aquarium. After a few months of aging, the combo works extremely well, especially if the bioload is reasonable, the protein skimmer is fed from surface extraction, and the water reaches the skimmer before being subjected to the other two processes. I also use 100 micron filter cloth and Chemipads as prefilters for the trickle filter.