Reef Aquarium Filters - Using a Wet-Dry Filter
Wet-Dry Filters For Your Reef Aquarium
The Wet-Dry/Trickle Filter is one of the most recognizable filters in the marine aquarium hobby. This filter is the one that your local fish store will try to sell you if you request a saltwater tank filter. The reason they are popular with the novice hobbyist is that they come pre-made; all you have to do is open the packaging and install it. These pre-made units come with an overflow box, a built-in protein skimmer, a tray with holes in it where the filter pad goes, as many bio-balls as the filter can hold, and a foam post filter. The only thing you need to add is a pump sufficiently large enough for the aquarium.
These filters
have fallen out of favor with reef aquarium hobbyist because
the bio-balls leach Nitrates into the aquarium water. The
protein skimmers found on these types of filters are not very
efficient either, and when used in a reef aquarium, they do
not remove organics fast enough to keep phosphates and
Nitrates at the levels they need to be.
These filters are very efficient at removing ammonia from the
water and, thus, are a good option if you're creating a
fish-only aquarium. One problem with wet-dry/trickle filters
occurs during their transformation of ammonia to Nitrite and
then to Nitrate. In a reef aquarium, these compounds are
dangerous to the sensitive corals and invertebrates and,
thus, must be removed. However, the wet-dry filter is not
capable of completing the nitrogen cycle and, in fact, adds
to the Nitrate load of the tank.
We do not recommend using these filters for reef
aquariums.
