Wet/dry Sump or Refugium Only?

LFS says no need for Wet / Dry for reef tank, only need a Refugium / skimmer and canister ? This sound accurate ??

Just bought a 125gal that has an Eheim Professional II Wet/Dry w/ heater and seperate Ehiem Canister filter attached....and a 10 gallon DIY Refugium.

I am setting it back up and would like to know if I should stay with the Eheims's or listen to LFS and go with a 30 Gal Refugium and skimmer / canister filter only?

I will have fish with about 100 lbs LR / 100 lbs new LS in this tank.

This tank was covered with green hair algae / Bubble algae...all the LR is in garage in 55 gal barrel soaking in darkenss heater and circulation pump running ..... temp is 75 in barrel.

From what i have been reading .....most tanks look to be running a wet/dry sump and refugium / skimmer and canisters. The Eheim wet/dry looks to be a nice system, and i see good remarks on their product....but is it really necessary ??

My sig shows my current set up w/ 90 gal which is running nicely....would be easier it seems to match the same filtration on the 125gal.... but add a refugium?

 

I am running a 150 gallon cube with only a fuge and skimmer. It has been up for almost 9 months now. It seems like this is the current trend. Some setups even have both fuge and sump in one tank. My fuge is close to 50 gallons but probably only running 25-30 gallons of water through it at a time. A well thought out fuge will probably give you the best results. A fuge does so much more than a sump. Mine grows tons of Macro algae so it is doing something. Dare me and I will follow up with a pictorial of my build. I just have been to busy to try and post it up on here.

 

Looking back through your thread. A 30-40 gallon fuge will eliminate most of your problems. I have put frags in my tank with bubble algae on it to only have it starve to death because my chaeto eats up all of the excess nutrients along with my skimmer.

 

Thanks for reply juan ! I am really leaning towards selling the Eheim wet/dry filter and going with a larger fuge / skimmer / canister. I'm just afraid the Eheim has to many media filters ( 3 levels ) plus thats 2 less lines into the tank ( air line / thermometer ) the Eheim requires

would like others advise till I decide

 

I canned my Eheim canister filter, it caused more problems than benefits. I have a CPR wet/dry filter that holds all my equipment, return pump and skimmer setup. If I knew back when I started, what I know now, I would go with large fuge only with section for equipment only, no wet/dry. I'm in the process of converting the CPR system I have now into a berlin sump with a separate fuge attached.

 

Thanks Tigermike ....just another notch towards the 55 fuge and no wet/dry filtration.

I see alot of people run a wet/dry sump and fuge ....but was wondering if that is a phase that it on the outs ...and the fuge / skimmer only phase in on the way in ?

I have lots of room as I'm going thru the wall and into the garage with the equipment....I learned that a " pretty" stand ( with center shelving for nic/nacs ) is worthless for functionality. Fortunately, I can punch thru wall and into garage for equipment and auto-topoff connections. Now its just research research research !!

Must have asprin !!!

 

I would lose the cannister.

I'm running a fuge with a 6" DSB and chaeto algae and an AquaC Remora Pro skimmer on my 72. No mechanical filtration at all. Not even socks. Nitrates are at 0.0.

Actually, the big ball of chaeto acts as a mechanical filter. However it's alive and it has pods, small brittle stars and bristle worms crawling through it consuming everything that gets trapped in there.

 

And nothing from the fuge will hurt or promote nusiance algae in the Main tank ? I thought Bristle worms / Stars were not good for reef tanks ??