Jeremy said:
You don't want a wet dry sump dude.
Another name for trickle filters is degassing towers.
Goodbye CO2.
If you opt for a sump, go for the freshwater version of the Ecosystem, with plants growing in the sump.
Underworld distribute freshwater Ecosystems in the UK.
I wouldn't even have wet/dry on marines.
It is an out of date method that produces nitrate.
Note I stated to seal the tower.
Actually sumps are very good if used correctly:
1) you get constant water level in your main tank (assuming of course the rate of output of the return pump is constant)
2) unlike canister filters mechanical filtration is neatly segregated (depends on your implementation), which means that as it gets clogged you could change it directly without having to the awkwardness of turning off and decoupling shut off taps and opening and the closing the canister
Here is an image of my working syphon box:
the thing is that you can calculate water flow by the height of the water over the barrier. The dirt building up on the polymer wool is 2 days worth. You have to bare in mind that I keep large synodontis catfish and barbs, so they're messy.
3) the bio tower is maintenance free. It is never to be touched at all. I've not touched my bio tower since the day it was put in place
4) you can now put a heater in the sump and any other things that take your fancy, you could also run your CO2 reactor on your sump knowing that the water will be returned to the tank
5) adding extra reactors and chemical filtration is a breeze
6) implementation of water change and water top up is also a breeze . .
drawbacks:
1) large space required, best suited to good cabinets with total open void space
2) you could have water running about if you DON'T know what you are doing - and most don't unfortunately
3) operation and trouble shooting is also rather subtle to understand for most hobbyists
wet/dry towers fell out of favour with the reef community because they were just nitrate factories, what they do now is to skim the water before hitting the ammonia tower. We don't care about nitrate factories :idea: since our plants want the nitrate (and BGA is horrible stuff to have).