OK, now, this is just an opinion and I'm hoping for some reasonable debate here on the topic of biological filtration.
I've noticed that a lot of folks wayyyyy overkill their biofilters, wetherh it's by using expensive media, massive bakki style bio towers, huge sumps with bioballs and scrubbies, or whatever else. Now, a huge sump is great for adding water volume and housing equipment, but having 5 different kinds of media in there always makes me scratch my head. I can totally understand overkilling the mech fitlration, because there is clarity to be gained from it, but at some point with bio, you are only providing extra surface area that will not be used by BB. Read that again, it won't be used.
A tank will only support enough BB to process it's ammonia and nitrites in a certain time scale. Increasing the flow may shorten the time it takes to process slightly, but it won't grow your bacteria colony. My favorite example is a 120gal tank, that I had 3 very large, very messy, piggish monsters in. I was running a sump with some filter socks and 5 gallons or so of a mishmash of bioballs, pea gravel, and crushed coral, all running off a cheap 800gph pump. Now, I had to do water changes every week to keep the nitrates down, but the BB was more than adequate to deal with the ammonia, so why would you make a bio tower and 30gals of scrubbies and a rugf in the tank, and blah blah blah?
Wet dry filters may be theoretically more powerful, but they are also (usually) noisy, and the "dry" section is lost water volume. DIY bio towers just look like a pain to deal with if they ever need maintenance. Why bother if your tank does not require it?
Dont' get me wrong, I completely understand the appeal of overdoing things, but my aim here is to open the idea that in some cases less is more. A 70gal sump on a 200gl tank is great in some ways, but if it fills up the stand and is a pain to get at and the job could be done by a rugf, or a trio of AC110's or a canister then you know, maybe the rugf makes more sense, even though it's not as overkill.
It's akin to adding 2x4 framing to the outside of a 100gl plywood tank I guess. Yeah it's stronger, but it just doesn't need to be, so why bother?
Anyways, other opinions on the matter?
I've noticed that a lot of folks wayyyyy overkill their biofilters, wetherh it's by using expensive media, massive bakki style bio towers, huge sumps with bioballs and scrubbies, or whatever else. Now, a huge sump is great for adding water volume and housing equipment, but having 5 different kinds of media in there always makes me scratch my head. I can totally understand overkilling the mech fitlration, because there is clarity to be gained from it, but at some point with bio, you are only providing extra surface area that will not be used by BB. Read that again, it won't be used.
A tank will only support enough BB to process it's ammonia and nitrites in a certain time scale. Increasing the flow may shorten the time it takes to process slightly, but it won't grow your bacteria colony. My favorite example is a 120gal tank, that I had 3 very large, very messy, piggish monsters in. I was running a sump with some filter socks and 5 gallons or so of a mishmash of bioballs, pea gravel, and crushed coral, all running off a cheap 800gph pump. Now, I had to do water changes every week to keep the nitrates down, but the BB was more than adequate to deal with the ammonia, so why would you make a bio tower and 30gals of scrubbies and a rugf in the tank, and blah blah blah?
Wet dry filters may be theoretically more powerful, but they are also (usually) noisy, and the "dry" section is lost water volume. DIY bio towers just look like a pain to deal with if they ever need maintenance. Why bother if your tank does not require it?
Dont' get me wrong, I completely understand the appeal of overdoing things, but my aim here is to open the idea that in some cases less is more. A 70gal sump on a 200gl tank is great in some ways, but if it fills up the stand and is a pain to get at and the job could be done by a rugf, or a trio of AC110's or a canister then you know, maybe the rugf makes more sense, even though it's not as overkill.
It's akin to adding 2x4 framing to the outside of a 100gl plywood tank I guess. Yeah it's stronger, but it just doesn't need to be, so why bother?
Anyways, other opinions on the matter?