Filtration questions.
- Thread starter mikeb210
- Start date
I'm also curious about the wet/dry filter. I've heard they are nitrate factories, and with goldfish that would definitely be a bad thing. How are they doing on your tanks, Rod?
:iagree:
Wet and dry are the best... a lot of oxygen (good for golfish) and the media is almost forever (except pads that they are really cheap). W/D filters break ammonia and nitrites faster than other filters. If you combine this with a canister for polish your water, your goldies would be inlove with you.... just my penny!!!
Wet and dry are the best... a lot of oxygen (good for golfish) and the media is almost forever (except pads that they are really cheap). W/D filters break ammonia and nitrites faster than other filters. If you combine this with a canister for polish your water, your goldies would be inlove with you.... just my penny!!!
just make your weekly water changes and no problems, goldfish love water change.
my water parm's are great never a nitrate issue, the wet dry filters i only use are TOM wet/dry filter and they only make 1 model often you can find them on sale at dr fosters or thatpetplace or bigals web sites. you get everything in the box and there is nothing else to buy its plug and play when you open the box. over flox box and return pump is all included sweet filter great company TOM. i run a hot magnum with the micron cart to polish the water. i make my own filter pads for the wet dry filters so cost there is almost nil. i been running some of them for over a year now and have never had water quality issues the top basket i have poly filter pads the next 2 baskets i have full of coralife nano bio balls you can use regular size bio balls in them i just happed to have a huge black plastic garbage bag of the nano bio balls i got for free from a friend who moved so i just used them. the baskets that hold your media choices are large and deep and hold alot. and the top of the wet dry is enclosed its not a open top which helps with evaporation.
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I too have heard of wet/dry's being nitrate bombs, but have never had a problem with mine. I do vac out the bottom of the filter from time to time to rid it of sandy grit that accumulates over time. I do remove some bio-balls every 4-6 months (a handful or two)to clean them. I recently upgraded to my current tank, and rinsed half of my bio-balls in tank water. Again to remove detritus and gunk. I was suprized as to how much debris actually was trapped and unnoticed. I think if a system was set-up and running for years, one might see some nitrate spikes if not given a scrub from time to time. Other than a little maint., I will never use another type of filter other than a wet/dry. To many pros than cons.
I've heard the same about wet/dry's. I was wondering if anyone has tried the algae scrubber thats floating around AC. It looks like it'd be awesome in SW, but for what we're discussing about removing nitrates, the thing might be perfect. Seems like a $40 alternative. I'm just not keen on the idea of the above tank filter and I don't know how much trouble it'd be to use without having my tank drilled. Maybe there is some way to run the two in conjunction with one another. I'm not sure if they'd be cost effective in the long run though.
actually they make two... one with out the autofill and one with.
I am looking at this one...
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...eriesps4filterandskimmerwautofillsystem700gph
the ps3 is the old version and the ps4 is the newest version. difference is the ps4 has a improved over flow box and a 1,000GPH return pump and a improved skimmer if your using it for a saltwater tank fresh water you dont need to connect the skimmer part, the ps3 uses a 700GPH return pump. and the ps4 system is on sale at big als for $179 and the old ps3 one is 279.00 weird pricing. they look identical the ps3 and ps4 its just a few improvements is the only difference. the first one i ever bought was off craigslist a ps3 i got it for 50.00 and liked it so well when the new ones came out and and were on sale i started selling off my old filters and buying the ps4's.
