Hi there,

I am planning my first salt water aquarium (in the 55 - 70 gallon) range and am getting confused by the choice of wet/dry and live rock/live sand filtration. The high-end aquarium store I visited only does live rock/live sand with a protein skimmer. while the other aquarium store I visited only does wet/dry. Both are pretty adamant about their choices.

My current thinking is so start out with wet/dry and a little live rock and gradually add more live rock over time in the hope of eventually removing the wet/dry.

Being a newbie, I am thinking I should minimize the amount of living stuff in my tank until I understand the whole process (and less things to die), hence the wet/dry.

Is this a good approach or should I go totally live rock from day 1?

Any insights are appreciated.

IMHO, skip the wet/dry unless you are going to use it as a sump/fuge (remove the bio-balls) and stick with LR/LS. Wet/dry is sort of "old school", unless you are planning a fish only system. LR/LS tend to yield a more balanced tank.

I would skip the wet/dry.

DreamWeaver

Welcome to TR, glad you found us. Both Phurst and Seahorsedreams are giving you good advice but not explaining the Y.

While the wet/dry is considered "old school", it is still a great filter for converting Ammonia and Nitrite, to less harmful Nitrate. But, that is where it's efficiency stops. That is OK in a fish only set up. However, in a reef set up that's exactly where you get into trouble. The wet/dry does not convert Nitrate and it builds to toxic levels quickly and water changes will not take out enough Nitrate to relieve the problem. Because fish only aquariums are "old school" (fish are not as susceptible to Nitrate) and reef aquariums are "new school" the "old" won't do in a reef aquarium. The animals we keep in a reef, in addition to a few fish, are much less tolerant to Nitrate and will die off with levels much lower than fish can adapt to. You need to provide a means of your filtration system to convert the Nitrate to Nitrogen gas which escapes to the atmosphere harmlessly.

We do this by using LR, DSBs, Protein Skimmers, Ozone and probably other devices eluding my feeble mind at the moment.

Sad as it is for me to say and for you to hear, but oh so true and the sooner you understand this the better. "The worst place to go for accurate and consistent information concerning the set-up and maintenance of saltwater aquariums is your LFS" Now, certainly there are some good ones but, sadly to say, they are far and few between. This may seem more than a little odd to you since the LFS is the newbies first and most likely source of information.

You are fortunate to have found the best of sources for information, you found TR.

Dick

I concur, as I am turning over my wet/dry right now in Rob's suggestion in a thread I started in filtration.

here are my thoughts on the topic

http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/filtration/3387-bio-media-nitrates-trickle-wet-dry-filters.html

Thanks for the responses, I learned a lot. I will definitely check out podcast that covers this also.

Hi DreamWeaver,

Since you have your question answered so I'll just say :welcome: to TR.

Soooo.... dreamweaver..... does your name indicate you are good with the software?

*Crosses fingers that it is, but the way her luck has been going today she bets it's not*

I guess a good question is; what are you planning to keep in this tank?

I agree totally with Amphibious, especially in regards to the LFS's. I began inquiring about reef tanks about 7 months ago and every LFS that I went to (all 4 in my area) suggested a wet/dry system was required. Of course the cheapest was $250, which at the time I thought was a huge expense. To date I've invested over three thousand dollars and the price of the lighting alone makes $250 chump change. Luckily I started visiting sites like TR prior to purchasing the actual equipment. If it's a reef tank your interested in then it's better to filter with LR and LS than a wet/dry. Good luck!

In addition to what everyone's said, LR will also offer you an abundance of biodiversity to your tank (bacteria, worms, pods, etc)!

Welcome to TR DreamWeaver!