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Hello I am new around here but have been lurking for the past 2 weeks with all the info that is givin around here,

I am interested on thoughts of a wet dry system vs a fluval fx5 canister filter for my RES and Mississippi Map turtle

I am upgrading tanks and the gentleman i am buing my 120 gallon off of offered his wet dry tank for $50, I have already bought my Fluval fx5 but am able to return it... not sure wich route to go with?

I am also planning on some other larger native species fish but that will come in time not right away, thanks for the help guys and gals!

So ive continued my search and have found that wet dry systems are not exactly all that useful for a turtle tank, due to the high amounts of waste as I already knew

My next question is would it be benaficial to run both? If I run the fx5 with nothing but diffrent filter pads for mechanical filtration, and then use the wet/dry system for biological filtration mostly as I know I would need some type of filter over the drip tray to keep out chunks and such....

Then that leads me to my next question... is there a way to link the 2 filtration devices together? The only problem I can see is trying to get the correct output gph to match the fx5 would this be correct

And my final question, am I plainly just over thinking this? Will the fx5 give me everything and more than I really want here? Keep in mind I am wanting to have other things in my 120 gallon than 2 turtles eventually...

Welcome to the forum!

More filtration is never a bad thing, though I don't think the extra work involved is worth it. A fully stocked FX5 would be everything you need.

thanks for the input steve, i was begining to wonder if i was over thinking this a little but didnt know how much was enough, as far as work im not sure if it would be much extra work for the simple fact that he has all the piping and everything that goes with it he would be selling me, tank stand and wet dry system that was fully functioning before... if I was able to get the 2 systems to link im not sure that the wet dry system would ever need to be maintained as it would be fully filtered by the time it got to it thus eliminating the need for clean out? or is this just only my wildest theory? with fully filtered water going into the bio balls i dont know how any extra crud could get in there wich is good for the balls for what I understand and also GREAT for me lol

This just all in my thoughts though not that ive used either one of these procedures just what I have came to understand from reading ( which I have read alot alot alot lol) i havnt actually ever had anything larger than a 20 gallon long and a bio wheel for filtration, so with the purchase of my first home im finally able to go all in about getting a nice tank finally!!!

One less filter to clean is a good thing I don't think any closed filtration system can go long with out cleaning, but some people go for months without cleaning their FX5. The crud is not bacteria, so the bio balls don't do anything for that (at least to my understanding).

Ya thats what I was saying... a wet dry system is mostly for clean tanks ( less messy fish ) but with the turtles it wouldnt be able to cope with the demand off the turtles beause as my understanding goes you are only to use one type of filter media before it goes through the drip tray and that would get loaded either really fast or would allow lots of crud past it thus letting it get tangled in the bioballs what a mess!

I think for 50 bucks im gona take the wet dry and give it a shot worst case I take it out... Im sur.i can get my 50$ back out of it

I belive i found the answer i finally needed, the reason/s a wet dry system doesnt work for turtles is because most importantly the abundance of stuff that needs filtered out is heavy... making it sink, wet dry systems use the overflow box at the top of the tank hence never getting the crud out of your tank...end of story fx5 I will run solo

Even a canister won't be able to filter it all out, but you are correct that it will do a better job.

ziggnick wrote:I belive i found the answer i finally needed, the reason/s a wet dry system doesnt work for turtles is because most importantly the abundance of stuff that needs filtered out is heavy... making it sink, wet dry systems use the overflow box at the top of the tank hence never getting the crud out of your tank...end of story fx5 I will run solo

This is correct.

Also a wet dry system uses bio balls - which don't nearly have as much surface area as newer ceramic rings. You're much better off with the solo FX5.
Yes overflows and sumps work well in saltwater... the specific gravity of the saltwater causes crud and proteins to float where they can be surface skimmed off. Freshwater which has a SG of 0, means that waste sinks to the bottom. No amount of surface skimming will grab it.

Surface skimming does still work to a point...
Water is still being moved through the sump and the biological filtration will break down some of the ammonia. The problem is the ammonia source (turtle waste) is never physically removed and accumulates on the bottom of the display tank and eventually overruns the filtration capacity of your sump based bio filter.