excited! Slowly moving along!

[mallorieGgator]

So yesterday, we bought the wet/dry for our 55 gallon. We got the model that goes up to 110 gal so we can fit our future protein skimmer in it. We went with a wet/dry mainly because it was cheaper than a custom sump to fit in our tiny stand. A LFS guy is going to make us a custom refugium to attach to the wet/dry in the future. Yay! Slowly moving along with this process. I can't wait to actually have some corals and fish in the tank! :dance:

[shifty51008]

congrats on moving forward, if I was you and the wet dry has bio balls I would remove them now before you have nitrate problems later on.

[Palting]

Happy to see you so excited. That's what this hobby is all about.

I am not a bioball hater. If your wet/dry has bioballs, you've paid for it, so, use it! They are very efficient at what they do, and what they do is break down the dangerous ammonia to the least dangerous nitrate. They are so efficient at it, they earn the moniker "nitrate factory". Just keep the pre-filters cleaned/replaced weekly and keep up with the water changes, maybe have a refugium with macro, and you'll be fine!

[Saltyllama]

It can be done. You will most likely want to give the bio-balls a cleaning every 6 months though. I ran a wet/dry for a while and never showed nitrate levels. If worse comes to worse, remove the balls, add liverock and you have yourself a nice big sump!

Question though, why was a custom sump more expensive than a custom fuge you plan to add?

[muttley000]

I'm not a fan of bioballs for SPS, but you know what they say about opinions! I personally would fill with live rock rubble. You mention corals, are you going SPS or LPS/Softies. The easier to keep LPS/Softies may actually appreciate the higher nitrates you will probably experience with the bioballs.

[mallorieGgator]

Thanks! The fuge will be smaller and requires a little less work I guess. The price for a custom sump was like $250, the wet/dry was much cheaper. I'm keeping the bio balls most likely and may add some like rock rubble in there too. I was advised to clean half the bioballs about every 2 years to avoid any problems.

[mallorieGgator]

I'm not a fan of bioballs for SPS, but you know what they say about opinions! I personally would fill with live rock rubble. You mention corals, are you going SPS or LPS/Softies. The easier to keep LPS/Softies may actually appreciate the higher nitrates you will probably experience with the bioballs.

I'm going for LPS/ NPS/ and softies.. MAYBE one or two SPS and see how it goes.

[shifty51008]

I'm going for LPS/ NPS/ and softies.. MAYBE one or two SPS and see how it goes.

ok I have to ask what is NPS. lol

[mallorieGgator]

non-photosynthetic.