filter

[tmkx3]

Hi! Has anyone ever heard of the tidepool wet/dry system? I am going to set-up a fowlr tank. What type of filter do you recommend? This will be my first saltwater tank and I am going to proably go with a 75g. I have been reading and reading some more and now I am totally confused. Thanxs, Tinia

[zhenya]

Hi, Tinia,

Welcome to Reefland!

I can certainly understand your confusions.., been there myself.

Anyway, I think if you planing on having FOWLR tank, you could probably rely on your live rock and maybe deep sand bed( if you choose to utilize one). You can also combine that with the refugium ( hang on back or somewhere else inline) to have pretty much all your filtration needs taken care of.
Wet/dry filters are very good filters and very efficient at converting ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrate(the final stage in nitrogen process), mauybe too efficient at times. The problem is there is no way of removing all that NO3, except maybe massive water changes. I think you'll find that your live rock can house enough bacteria to handle the Nitrogen process without the added maintanance of the bio-balls or other media that comes with those wet/dry filters. If they not kept clean you'll find that you'll have your NO3 levels rising, leading to nuissance algae growth and all that.

I would also recommend doing more research on various methods of filtration before you purchase anything. There are many ways to skin a cat, as they say, it also applies to this hobby as well.

Do some searches on this forum using refugium, filtration, wet/dry as keywords and you should find plenty of threads to read and think over. ;)
Good luck with whatever you decide!

[Reefland]

Welcome to Reefland.com!

In addition to what zhenya has offered, I would also suggest utilizing a protein skimmer, a good one, on the system. Protein Skimmers are devices that remove organic and inorganic waste from the aquarium before it has the chance to be converted into nitrate and therefore indirectly reduce the amount of NO3 that has to be removed via other means.