Anyone running a reef tank without a wet/dry filter?

[hoffy]

My current set up is a 75 gallon tank with 80 pounds of live rock, a couple of mushrooms, live sand, 2 tangs, a clown, a sleeper goby, and two small damsels. I have a fluval 204 canister which passes water through a turbo twister u/v sterilizer. I also have a penquin 330 without the bio wheels and a 290 gph power head in the tank. My problem with the wet/dry is that everytime I feed my fish, a majority of the food just goes straight into it.
So my question is, how many of you are running a reef tank without a wet/dry filter? My plan would be to disconnect the wet/dry, add two rotating power heads in the tank, and let the other filters and live rock take care of the rest. Does anyone have any input on this?

My only problem at that point would be that my protein skimmer is in my sump of my wet/dry. However, I have had this tank running for 2 months and I have never gotten anything out of it. How necessary is a protein skimmer?

[Tom]

Most don't use a wet dry for keeping a reef...you'll find it hard to keep nitrates down if you keep using it...if you can, keep the sump and ditch the wet dry parts...water goes in from overflows to your sump so your protein skimmer (almost everyone uses a skimmer) has a place to function. You may need to adjust your skimmer...the wet dry should not effect it's output! I, as well as a lot of others lately...have a sand bed and live rock with macro algae growing over it in the sump. You may want to ditch the canister and uv as well...I use a uv only for a couple of months after adding a new fish, then disconnect it till I need it again...it will kill a lot of good "microstuff". The canister is just something to clean, if you want to use carbon everynow and then just throw some in a mesh bag and place it in a high flow area in your sump. As far as the food going into your sump/filter you may have to cut things off for feeding or find some food that sinks faster! Hope this helps.

[tendar]

I would keep your sump it makes the system overall easier to work with and leaves less stuff in the main take to look at.If you need to you can just turn off your return pump from the sump when you feed for a few minutes or tell you fish to eat faster.
What food are you feeding that makes it down the overflow so fast anyways?

[hoffy]

I am feeding a variety of foods:
Formula 1 flakes
Spirulina flakes
frozen gumdrops of brine shrimp, bloodworms, and spirulina
All of these foods get sucked down the overflow faster than I would prefer. I also feed them spirulina pellets which sink quickly and work well.
As for the uv killing the good microstuff, what are the consequences of this? What will my tank be missing if I leave it running. I bought it to eliminate a green water outbreak, which it cleared up in 2-3 days.
What is your flow rate in your tank? What would you recommend? I plan on adding polyps and more corals within the next month.

[Tom]

The UV will kill any thing small enough to get sucked through it...small things your corals will feed on...some folks don't use them at all...I like them to ward off parasites when I introduce a new fish. This helps since I do not use a hospital tank. As for the flow in my tank...from overflows to sump and back, around 1500gph in a 125g tank with a 55g sump...I also have to power heads hooked to a wave maker pumping around 750gph each.

[tendar]

UV have good and bad effects. Some peope like run to run them helps control algea and ick out breaks.
Flow should be at least 10x tank water turn over a hour with the more the better. 20x turnover would be a good one to shoot for.