3' Waterfall (Beneficial or not?) and other ?

Ok here is the deal, I am moving my sump setup to the basement
just below my 265G DT.
I have 2 50 gall oval tubs about 1' deep
a big dual input wet dry, a 50G sump and a 30G sump.

Dual wet/dry

The saltwater will go from the 2 overflows in the DT to here first.
Would you remove bioballs and put in 2 filter bags instead?

The water will then fall to 2 of these tubs.
My plan is to use 1 of the 50G tub's for the Mangroves
the other for the refugium.
I can make this fall as tall as I want.
I could also tier the fall for more aggitation.
I could also use rock to make the waterfall
I could just use pvc pipe and no waterfall.
What do you think would more water aggitation
be good or make no differance or be bad?

50G tub x2

Then the water will go to my
50G sump with the protien skimmer in it
and return to tank.
50G sump


Any Suggestions, Comments would be appreciated

 

Wow, that sounds like a pretty intricate setup. The water fall idea would work well to really oxygenate the water, but you are going to have salt creep all over the place and might even run into problems maintaining your SG, I would just go with PVC. I would remove the bioballs (errr, curlers?) in favor of large 100 micron socks if your OK with getting a bunch, and changing them out every 2-3 days. That or a bunch of live rock rubble.

JMO.

~Will.

 

I was worried about salt creep also and thought about just a vertical drop for the water. It would just freefall strait down to the 50G tub. I also thought of a gentle water fall with a 10" wide sheet of plexiglass with 2" sides?

 

I agree that the waterfall would cause salt creep and would be pretty noisy, even though it's in the basement, you will probable spend quite a bit of time down there. Now I'm not really sure about larger setups, but I believe a protein skimmer produces enough oxygen in the water. I would also take those balls out. Those are going to be a pain. Socks will need to be changes often too. You could just leave that for some LR ruble or carbon (unless you have another place for that), just not a big fan of wet/dry sumps.

 

I have never ran carbon:-[

Is there any negatives to it?
how often due you replace it?
Maybe just take the bio balls out and put carbon in both or 1 side?

 

Looks like you have a nice big skimmer and lots of surface area for gas exchange already, I don't know if it would be worth the trouble just for gas exchange which is the only potential reason I could see for it, aside from it being kind of cool. I would just plumb it with PVC like normal.

I would remove the media from your wet dry and use it just like a sump, if you want to put mechanical filtration (filter socks/pads etc) in there then go for it, for me it's just one more thing to maintain so I don't use mechanical filtration except once in a while during cleaning.

Sounds like you have a nice system in the works although I've read some skeptical reports about the actual usefulness of mangroves as nutrient exports (grow too slow I think mainly), they are pretty cool and might be a cool "secondary display" anyway.

 

Here's some carbon info (watch the video and read the links). The only negative IMO is the expense and you have to change it regularly for it to continue being effective. I replace mine every couple of weeks, I'm pretty lax in my changing schedule.
One Gallon Activated Lignite Carbon Bulk Reef Supply