filtration for planted tank

[sardesign]

i wanted to add filtration to my planted tank to work in tandem with my eheim 2028. i was going to build a wet/dry but a thought crossed my mind. will the gas exchange in the trickle work against me. i have enough trouble keeping CO2 levels high enough.

[Gbbudd]

yes a wet dry will definatly pull c02 out of the water bumping up amount of co2 to compinsate is possible. Wet dry's are worth there weight in marine tanks i'd not set up a marine tank without one though there are other methods being used that seem to work well using just a protein skimmer and live rock. I have two ehiems on my tank a tad excessive but it works for me i have a pro3 and i think the other is a 224

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z232/gbbudd/

[echoofformless]

Wet/dry is in my opinion a largely pointless form of filtration except for tanks which house extremely large, messy fish or are grossly overcrowded. There is simply more than enough surface area between the filter, the tank sides, the ornaments, the substrate, plants, etc for all of the bacteria you will ever need (and probably even more than you will ever need.)

Not to mention the fact that plants prefer ammonia as their first source of nitrogen, nitrite comes second, and finally nitrate is actually their last choice for a nitrogen source. This means that essentially your plants are competing with your bacteria for ammonia and nitrite.

Thus a very heavily planted tank with strong lighting wouldn't even need a biofilter at all if the amount and rate of waste produced by the fish didn't exceed the amount and rate that the plants absorbed ammonia.

Plus as mentioned, wet/dry filtration will greatly reduce your dissolved CO2. In other words, stay with the canister filtration.

[echoofformless]

By the way, gbbudd - your tanks are amazing.

[blasterman_]

In other words, stay with the canister filtration.

IMHO - cannister filters don't do much either than act as a nice place for bacteria to camp out either, but that's a different debate. I know that crystal clear tanks are much more important than healthy ones (groan).

Wet/Dry's are waste of time in Marine tanks - IMHO. Add Biowheels to that list as well.

Sumps are bad enough, but wet/dry's also encourage evaporation at a much more drastic rate than a sealed tank, and any experienced reefer knows that adding water to a tank is something you try to do as little as possible given that R/O units aren't free.

Ammonia and Nitrite reducing bacteria will grow in plentifull supply is a layer of Walmart colored gravel with a small amount of current on them, or live rock. Why in $%^& you'd want to move this process to a mechanical unit outside of the ecosystem is beyond me. Plus, live rock and gravel/sand substrate will have *some* nitrate reduction in an anaerobic zone, which you need all you can get in a marine (or fresh) tank. This is sure not going to occur in a Wet/dry unit.

[sardesign]

IMHO - cannister filters don't do much either than act as a nice place for bacteria to camp out either, but that's a different debate. I know that crystal clear tanks are much more important than healthy ones (groan).

crystal clear tanks are not more important than the health of the organisms inside the tank, but it's a nice by-product. cannisters also provide a great place for the bacteria to camp out so that when you do have to do a bit of tank maintenance, you don't risk destroying too much of the bacteria colony. i only speak from freshwater experience as i have zero experience running saltwater tanks.

Wet/Dry's are waste of time in Marine tanks - IMHO. Add Biowheels to that list as well.

Sumps are bad enough, but wet/dry's also encourage evaporation at a much more drastic rate than a sealed tank, and any experienced reefer knows that adding water to a tank is something you try to do as little as possible given that R/O units aren't free.

Ammonia and Nitrite reducing bacteria will grow in plentifull supply is a layer of Walmart colored gravel with a small amount of current on them, or live rock. Why in $%^& you'd want to move this process to a mechanical unit outside of the ecosystem is beyond me. Plus, live rock and gravel/sand substrate will have *some* nitrate reduction in an anaerobic zone, which you need all you can get in a marine (or fresh) tank. This is sure not going to occur in a Wet/dry unit.