bio bale?

I have a few questions.. I have been searching threw this section about bio balls and LR as filtration.. So my first question is has any one had any experience with bio bales and which is the best method?? Also, im not to sure I understand the difference between a sump and a wet dry or are they the same thing?? If not which is better.. We are going to be up grading our filtration system from a canister to a wet/dry becasue we dont wont to drill our tank.. Its a cheep pet co tank.. We are thinking about getting an over flow box that looks like this one..
Reef Aquarium Filtration: Eshopps Overflow Boxes
and the wet/dry that we are thinking about looks like this..
CPR CR500 Wet/Dry Filter (Wet/Dry Only)
Our tank is a 26gal bow front tank and this wet dry is the largest we are able to fit under the tank.. I just wanted to know what you guys thought.. Now that we are able to upgrade we want to make the right choices.. Thanks for any input!!

 

you might want to shop around, some of these units come with an overflow box i done a quick search at thatpetplace on line and they have that very unit with and without an overflow 118 without to 199 with.

 

Thank you for this.. I like saving money ;D!!

 

Just wondering why dont you like the U-tub type?? Is it a lot of maintenance??

 

hang on back overflows some like them and some hate them i have used one for over 20 years without any problems, but a lot of folks prefer drilling there tank.

 

My U-Tube has been running for several months without the siphon ever breaking or me having a problem with it. I've even had snails crawl into the tube and it didn't break the siphon.

Edit - then again, there's a first time for everything and I probably should knock on some wood.

 

All it takes is a large pocket of air to get trapped into the U-tube, or the siphon box in the CS for the siphon to break. Your DT probably will overflow and your sump will run dry, then your return pump will probably burn out. With a U-Tube, you can run a small pump, like a Maxijet 400 into the U-Tube to force out any air that may get stuck in it. I have a CPR CS overflow and have an aqualifter pump to suck out any air that gets in.
A wet/dry filter is a system that trickles water over mechanical biological media, like biobale or bioballs, for aerobic bacteria to grow. Now, this is where they become "nitrate producing factories" as they are known to do if routine cleaning isn't carried out. I have a CPR wet dry and have removed more than half of the biobale for that reason. As for a sump, the incoming water gets filtered with a filter sock and goes on from there. Note that a filter sock will also become a nitrate producing factory if it is not cleaned regularly too. In both cases, the water usually get skimmed in a different chamber and gets returned to the tank. The difference between the two is that most sumps are also made into fuges, where wet/dry filters are not. Really, the main difference is how the incoming water is mechanically filtered as it comes from the tank. You can run a wet/dry or a sump system with an external overflow box, you are not limited to wet/dry because your tank is not drilled. You can also look into this option:
Glass-Holes.com dope aquarium stuff : Home
I did this for my 20G tank and it worked out great. Personally, I would recommend going with a sump/fuge system and not standard wet/dry. I am working on morphing my CR2000 wet/dry into a fuge. I wish I would have gone sump from the start and saved myself this headache (not to mention the $$$) of converting to a fuge based system.

 

I was looking at that wet/dry as well, but I ended up getting the Eshopps reef sump (from Dr.FS) instead, it has tons more room in it and the bio bale seems to be too expensive for what it does. Go with a straight sump vs. the wet/dry.