10 Gallon wet/dry filter...

Stephen Blackstone · May 20, 2015

I'm trying to put together my first sump for a fresh-water aquarium - the tank is a reef ready pre-drilled overflow box ..The sump setup is going into a standard 10 gallon tank to filter a reef-ready 55 gallon cube tank that will soon be home to some Cichlids...

Anyone see any issues with this plan I threw together.. Do I have the setup for the baffles around the sponge correct?

I've read that wet/dry setups can cause extra nitrate build up due to the lack of anoxic media, Does adding the sponge filter in the setup alleviate that issue?

reefwiser · May 21, 2015

The answer is no. You need to have a media that will create a oxygen poor environment for the anaerobic bacteria that consumes Nitrate to grow .
A sponge does not do this neither does bio balls. As they let water pass thru rather quickly. A product like Marine pure has a dense matrix that supports anaerobic bacteria.
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/view/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-video/

Stephen Blackstone · May 21, 2015

reefwiser said:
The answer is no. You need to have a media that will create a oxygen poor environment for the anaerobic bacteria that consumes Nitrate to grow .
A sponge does not do this neither does bio balls. As they let water pass thru rather quickly. A product like Marine pure has a dense matrix that supports anaerobic bacteria.
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/view/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-video/

Hi - I really appreciate the feedback..

Isn't the idea of the wet/dry filter that you have some media which will support the aerobic bacteria (which handles nitrite -> nitrate)..

My idea was that the bioballs would support the aerobic and the sponge would support the anaerobic and the baffles are setup to slow the speed of flow through the system..

Perhaps I've got something backwards here..

reefwiser · May 21, 2015

The sponge will do the same job as the bio ball. The flow must be so slow that there is no oxygen in the water. Sponges are used for filters just like bio balls. Baffles could not slow the water down to do this.