how to make wet/dry into sump

[angel01051977]

Ok, so I just bought this established 55 gallon system It came with 70 pounds of live rock and 70 pounds of live sand. I have several thinstripe hermits, snails, a chromis, blue damsel, yellow-stripe maroon clownfish and some tiny corals (devils hand, frogspawn, mushrooms, kenya tree and there are supposed to be some duncan and star polyps, but I can't find them h: ). It has a wet/dry system with the blue bioballs in one box and a cheap skimmer in the other. I've heard I can turn it into a sump simply by removing the bioballs. I read that fo tanks do fine with wet/dry, but corals do not bc of nitrates. So, how do I do this? What is the point of a sump? Do I just leave my skimmer and heater down there with nothing else? Help please.

 

[DaveK]

I feel that if you are going to set up a reef or a FOWLR (fish only with live rock) system, you shoud not use bioballs. You'll get much better results with the live rock acting as the bio media. The area formally used by the bio balls is best replaced with a filter sock, to act as an easily changed mechanical filter.

If you are going to set up a traditional FO (fish only) system, then you'll need the bioballs for biological filtration. By today's standards, I would consider this sort of setup to be inferior to a reef or FOWLR. Yes, configurations like this will produce a lot of nitrates, and it's one reason trickle filters are not used too much any more.

Check out the skimmer you have, and if it's marginal, replace it.