wet/dry setup, did we do it right?

AnnetteG

AnnetteG

getting back to basics
Sep 24, 2007
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Here are some pics of the wet/dry. The tank is full of water and the pump is running! Does it look like we did everything right, as far as you can tell from a picture, anyway?

Also, the water is going from the left side into the edge of the blue pad and then down into the lava rocks. It doesn't seem like it's going far enough into the blue pad for it to do much. Then it just sortof trickles down through the lava rocks, which I THINK is right, but we were just wondering about if it's right that it seems to not go very far through the pad before going down into the rocks. Oh, and we lowered the water level in the sump too, by about 3" or so.

Fish 099.jpg Fish 101.jpg
 
Cut the power and make sure you don't get a flood. When the return pump quits, the water will siphon from the tank into the filter through the pump. I drilled four holes in my return line about 1/4" below the water level in the display so that it breaks the siphon in case of power loss. And I clean the holes routinely. And test it. Often.
I only have about 4"of water in my filter w/LRR, but I needed to leave enough room for the water in case of power loss. A 1/4" of water in my tank is quite a bit....:)
Robbie
 
I did some hunting around on the lava rock and it seemed a good idea to me. It's extremely porous, so it's really great for growing bacteria. One article I read said that the aquarium business doesn't want the consumers to know that lava rock works because then we wouldn't spend money on all their "technological" advances like bio-balls, ceramics, glass, etc. etc.

We did the water level test, unplugged it and it doesn't flood. I'll tell my hubby that idea about drilling some holes in the line below the water level though, that sounds good!

Thanks!!! It already looks like the cloudiness is clearing. Hopefully I'll be able to get a decent pic of it tomorrow where you can see my not-so-dead live rock. :grinyes:
 
The outlet on the skimmer should be out of the water, if not this creates too much back pressure and the skimmer is likely to overflow. As far as the lava rock, I would use it in FW, but not salt, I would be concerned of heavy metals known to be in volcanic rock leaching into my system, may not affect the fish as much, but may inverts. I will say I did use it a very long time ago, when I was maybe 13 and it was strictly fish only tank. Being a kid with little funds, it did not stay up for more than a year and a half, so I can't really say about long term effect, I do remember algae growing like crazy on the stuff, but that could have been a number of reasons, I'm not neccessarily blaming the lava rock. I will say this, going cheap in this hobby is likely to bite you at some point, you really have to do some thinking sometimes. Is it worth putting your animals in possible danger for the couple of dollars saved? That is what I ask myself, when trying to save some cash. I don't have money, I am a stay at home dad, so I rely on whatever I can get for an allowance, it is usually spent within a couple of hours on my tank, then waiting 2 weeks for my next splurge. The siphon breaks are must in my book also. Good luck with your new system.
Matt
 
I don't have time to look for it now but I could swear the problem with lava rock in a marine tank is that it can sometimes leach out minerals that are harmful. The same ones would not be harmful in a FW tank.
 
Grins said:
I don't have time to look for it now but I could swear the problem with lava rock in a marine tank is that it can sometimes leach out minerals that are harmful. The same ones would not be harmful in a FW tank.
Click to expand...

I am thinking that I saw the same thing.. But when I had my HD crash a few months back I lost most of my favs including that article.
 
well, yes, we are on a tight budget, which is why it's been so awesome that we've been able to get the great tanks we have at low to nothing prices. We were excited to get the tank up and running with water, but we won't be putting anything live in it for quite a while and then stocking will be done slowly and of course I'll be testing the water a lot well before I put any fish in. I did some research online before deciding on the lava rock and saw several people saying that it is fine for fresh or salt water. I think it's probably one of those debatable things. It's not like it's that hard to change or get rid of, once I can afford to pick up some Live Rock! Hello Tax Refund, I've spent you already! :grinyes:

Anyway, I'm a big reader and researcher, I won't be endangering my animals. This is the article I came across that made me decide to try it:
http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/month.200201/msg00095.html

I did put a small layer of live sand on top of the "leveling sand" (which is labeled safe for sandboxes, so I know it's silica free) I settled on using, so hopefully that will help get something started. I'm planning on this taking a while though before I put any critters in.
 
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