i just dug out my old 90 acrylic and have gotten the fever to set her up again. it's been about 13 years since the last time a tore it down and I have my first two questions:
1. i have a wet/dry filter with a sump. not having followed things too closely, what is the current feeling on using the biomedia (bioballs) for a reef tank ?
2. I have a piece of equipment called a nitrate terminator. I don't think I remember ever getting this thing really "fine tuned" so I can't remember how effective it was (but i can remember paying a pretty penny for it). it's basically a beautiful and well crafted acrylic box that contains 3 vertical plastic eggcates. a powerhead sits in the bottom and supplies circulation to the 3-5 gallons of water it contains. a sprinkler system controller is used to control another powerhead that flushes the box into your sump and refills the terminator. after filling the box the controller turns on a dosing pump that doses the water with methanol (takes out all of the oxygen in the terminator water ??). supposedly the eggcrate grows bacteria in the oxygenless water that takes nitrates in the water to zero. this thing has some difficult to understand instructions and a labor intensive "cycling" period until the bacteria are established and determining the timeframes for methanol eliminationfrom the water.
does this kind of filtration raise red flags in anybodies minds out there ? does it make sense ?
thanks for your help ! looking forward to using the excellent information found here so far !
Mike
1. i have a wet/dry filter with a sump. not having followed things too closely, what is the current feeling on using the biomedia (bioballs) for a reef tank ?
2. I have a piece of equipment called a nitrate terminator. I don't think I remember ever getting this thing really "fine tuned" so I can't remember how effective it was (but i can remember paying a pretty penny for it). it's basically a beautiful and well crafted acrylic box that contains 3 vertical plastic eggcates. a powerhead sits in the bottom and supplies circulation to the 3-5 gallons of water it contains. a sprinkler system controller is used to control another powerhead that flushes the box into your sump and refills the terminator. after filling the box the controller turns on a dosing pump that doses the water with methanol (takes out all of the oxygen in the terminator water ??). supposedly the eggcrate grows bacteria in the oxygenless water that takes nitrates in the water to zero. this thing has some difficult to understand instructions and a labor intensive "cycling" period until the bacteria are established and determining the timeframes for methanol eliminationfrom the water.
does this kind of filtration raise red flags in anybodies minds out there ? does it make sense ?
thanks for your help ! looking forward to using the excellent information found here so far !
Mike