Changing wet/dry filter

[alharrison]

Happy Holidays to all my new reefing friends!! I have asked a couple of questions in the past couple of months and I would like to thank all who have helped me out. I am fairly new to saltwater reefing. I've had my aquarium up and running for about 2 1/2 months. Currently I have a two chamber wet/dry sump with bio balls. I have a 55gal corner tank with a custom made wood cabinet. and due to size restraints under the cabinet I can't fit a very large filter under the cabinet and there is no room behind the cabinet. I thought i read on the forum that I could replace the bio balls in my current filter with a light, live rock and something I think is called chaeo and this would increase my filtration. If this is true, will my tank recycle after the change? I am still fighting a small problem with hair algae, so will this change help with this problem? I do RO/DI water changes (about 30%) every week. So far my water tests show no problems, no nitrates,ammonia,phosphates etc.

 

[ErinCahir]

If you have algae, you're getting false negatives on the nitrates (and possibly the phosphate) tests. The algae is using the available nutrients so they don't register on the test.

If you replace the bioballs in your sump with live rock and chaeto (and a light for the chaeto) you will have a refugium, which should help with the hair algae in the display tank as the chaeto will out-compete the hair algae for whatever is feeding it.

 

[Smitty]

Erin has you covered.