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Hello,
I was reading an article on Marine tanks. I was reading about filteration and i had an idea. Could I have a UGF go to a Wet/Dry then to a Canister and then back in? That would make the best filteration possible right? In that setup where could the Skimmer come in? Also Can you put heaters and other stuff in the open space in a Wet/Dry? Also do you need special hoods for metal Halide lamps? Thanks.

Chris

UGF are generally not used in marine tanks or at least not very popular partially because most tanks either use sand or bare bottom. UGFs cannot be used with sand. That means you'd have to use crushed coral and that tends to trap alot of detritus causing high nitrates. You'd be better off with just the wet/dry and cannister but they need cleaned more frequently than a freshwater one would normally be. Any junk collected will make nitrates if you don't remove it and in a marine tank you really want to keep the nitrates at zero or in a fish only tank at least close to that. Alot of marine critter(particularly corals and inverts) are more sensitive to ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate than freshwater critters.

All your equipment can be run in a large wet/dry system or sump. Alot of people do that or build sumps specifically for the equipment. I have my heater in my hang on refugium and I don't run a skimmer. If your wet/dry is big enough the skimmer could potentially attach there but I think most people, unless they build a sump, run them directly on the tank so it would just hang on the side or back. You would probably need a good sized sump to fit the skimmer instead of the filter.

When running metal halide most don't use a top on their tank. Some put on egg crate to keep fish from jumping out but solid glass tops hold too much heat and metal halides produce tons of heat. They can cook your fish if you don't take steps to cool both lights and tank. You can either buy an already made hood with the metal halides and necessary fans installed or build your own. Search up DIY aquarium hood and you'll probably find tons of plans. hellolights.com is a good place to find lighting supplies.

That means you'd have to use crushed coral and that tends to trap alot of detritus causing high nitrates.

Can't I just have alot of inverts and a deterus clean up crew?

All your equipment can be run in a large wet/dry system or sump. Alot of people do that or build sumps specifically for the equipment. I have my heater in my hang on refugium and I don't run a skimmer. If your wet/dry is big enough the skimmer could potentially attach there but I think most people, unless they build a sump, run them directly on the tank so it would just hang on the side or back.

Can I get a giant Wet/Dry filter and put all of my stuff (heater, Skimmer, what else?) in it then to a canister then back in?

Chris

Nothing eats waste without producing it's own waste. Your cleanup crew helps lessen the waste, break it down into smaller pieces, and keep the substrate stirred up so large anearobic pockets don't develop but your still going to have waste left behind. On sand this mostly settles on the top and gets blown by the powerheads into your filtration system or piled in one spot and can be sucked out during a water change. With crushed coral it gets trapped in all the little crevices and can't be cleaned out as easily. You can do it but it's going to require more maintenance than sand. Plus if you have a cannister and wet/dry the ugf is quite pointless. It won't provide anywhere near as good of mechanical or biological filtration. Especially compared to the biological filtration of the wet/dry.

I don't run a wet/dry so I don't know the exact setup but from the ones I've seen all your equipment should fit inside it provided you get a large enough one. I'm not sure if you can connect it to the cannister though. Both will be running seperate motors and pumping their own water flow. If the wet/dry filters faster than the cannister it could pump too much water into the cannister. If the cannister filters faster than the wet/dry it will suck all the water out faster than the wet/dry fills. Most people use one main form of filtration unless it's a really big tank. Either a wet/dry that also has mechanical filtration chambers or a cannister with a section for biological media. You can also use liverock for all your biological filtration. Liverock does a far better job than any other filtration method and you get tons of interesting hitchhikers that help clean up your tank but it does have a rather expensive initial cost.

On my tank I decided to go simple instead of maintaining a large complicated filtration system. I was running only a refugium with macroalgae and some purigen and lots of liverock. I've since added a small power filter for a little more mechanical filtration. Downside is I can't stock my tank as heavily as someone with a skimmer and large filtration system but I have very little equipment to maintain and clean out.