sump ?

[jlspitler]

i have a oceanic 75 gallon freshwater tank. and i am using a wet/dry sump. and was wonder if the bio-balls should be under water or should the balls be half way under water. you can look atteh pic and let me know if i have done it right. also is a overflow box nessiciary for my application. i have also been told to add a bio meadia filter under the bio- balls. anyone know why i would need that. i thought that was what teh balls were for. again this is a freshwater tank.



thanks for any help.

[wetpetshawaii]

The bio balls should be above the water level so the water can evenly disperse/trickle through the bio media. your water level should be just above your water pump and just below the bio balls.....(also to avoid water overflowing from your sump) your bio balls is your bio media....a filter block sponge can be added to eliminate micro bubles from entering your pump. and your filter pad should sit above your bio balls.....Wetdry filters are more frequently used in Salt water set ups.....

[Fishfirst]

yes they are... but there is a catch... their pure effeciency make them a nightmare. Reef tanks especially I would avoid this mode of filtration. Nitrate factories like a wet dry filter can make nitrates sky high and thus make algae flourish and fish/inverts under stress.

[GoodMike]

bioballs work either way. submerged or just having water trickle over them. when my sumps (freshwater) are filled to the proper level, half my bioballs are submerged, and half arent. either way its fine.

[Danh]

Bio balls are made and designed more for their trickle affect than for pure surface area, as submerged bio media is made. They are much more efficient when used as dry media. So lower the water leven in the sump as far as you can. Put some prefilter media on top of the bio balls and you can full up any unused space in your sump with any kind of submerged media... ceramic rings, lava rock, gravel - just watch out that you don't get any in your pump. I wouldn't say that wet/dry sumps are used more often in sw than fw in general, but definitely with smaller tanks <55g or so. I have three FW tanks with wet/drys.. and 90g, 180g and 450g. They all run soely on sumps with 10g, 26g and 50g of bio balls resepectively. The 90 and 180 have have only the bottom inch or so of the bio balls submerged.