Newb ?'s about biomedia & sumps

[Davey Jones]

It seems to me there is a big knock on bioballs and other biomedia because detritus can get trapped in easily and cause nitrates to go up a lot faster than they otherwise would. If you are dumping the tank overflows through a sock filter as it enters your sump and then across biomedia, would biomedia not remove other bad junk from the water without causing a nitrate spike? The vast majority of the detritus should be removed by the sock filter correct.

Just a thought. I'm planning out my future system and don't want to scrap stuff from my current freshwater setup or stuff that is in my garage that might be useful.

[Saadatski]

Just make ur sump a refugium stage, much better than a wet dry filter system

[Davey Jones]

Originally Posted by Saadatski

Just make ur sump a refugium stage, much better than a wet dry filter system

With a deep sand bed? I've read that deep sand beds are more popular in the refugium as opposed to the tank itself. Would one use the same fine sand as they typically would in the tank or would they use a more coarse sand? Sorry for all the questions but I'm 2 years old in marine tank years.

I wasn't necessarily wanting to do bioballs or bio material, but it seems like it would be benefical to have it in there as long as there was a sock filter or some other easily cleanable filter material directly upstream. I was posing the question as a self educational lesson as opposed to what I was actually going to do.

[Saadatski]

well you would rely on your skimmer to get rid of suff in your tank.

a deep sand bed in both the DT and fuge along with chaetomorpha gives you the best tank setup