Posted by urozero1 on February 21, 2003 at 22:04:26:
In Reply to: Re: wet dry and reef posted by Mark024 on February 21, 2003 at 20:26:49:
Ohh ok,
Right now,
I have a wet/dry in which the water goes through a sponge, carbon than bioballs. Then it flows into the sump. In the sump i have a partly sumerged seaclone skimmer, and a pump that pumps it back to the aquarium. I created the wet dry out of my own plastic containers. So by skimming in the sump, Im removing the nitrate that is harful to many corals before it gets to the tank?
:Well there is some debate over this... you see a wet/dry filter does a fine job of removing wastes and providing an area for nitrifying bacteria to turn the ammonia into nitrite, and the nitrite into nitrate, but that is the problem- there is no way to provide for the anaerobic process that breaks down nitrate, so essentially the filter becomes a nitrate factory. This is fine for fish only tanks because nitrate is generally not toxic to fish, but its effects on corals and other inverts can be debated. As a result, there are people who use a wet dry anyway and count on water changes to remove the excess nitrate, and there are those who prefer the "berlin method." The berlin method is a means of biological filtration that is capable of bringing nitrates down to zero. Basically, all you need to do is provide a sump with a strong protein skimmer (I suppose it could be done with a hang on model, but a sump is always helpful), which will help remove wastes before they become ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and provide a large amount of live rock and live sand. Live rock has deep pores which serve as a site for the anaerobic bacteria (which break nitrate down into nitrogen gas and oxygen gas) to grow and break down the nitrate in your tank. A filter is not needed, but some people perform basic chemical filtration in the sump with carbon, phosphate removers, etc. Taking the biological media (like bio balls) out of a wet dry filter will set up a similar (though more expensive) system. Once again, the keys to a berlin method tank are strong skimming and live rock.
: -Mark
