filter pads or live rock in sump?

[pomme]

i was thinking of having filter pads in the first chamber of my sump (where the water comes in from the tank) but i had a thought last night that i could put live rock in there instead.

i thought the benefits of this would be:

that there wouldnt be a build up of nitrates on the filter pads as they wouldnt be there, and the live rock wouldnt get any as it would just get it of it!

it would mean less work for me, i know i shouldnt be saying this but it would, as i could just leave the live rock to it?

and also it would add to the bacterial levels in the tank, and more surfasces for them,

the doenside is it would be more expensive.

what do you guys think of this?

also to get the live rock smaller to fit in the chamber , 30cm by 15c, do you guys know a way of making it smalle, crushiiing it into smaller pieces?

thanks
andrew

 

[tomstanks]

I have heard of this working very well. However, You might want some sort of filter somewhere for particulate and such.

 

[shibby]

might as well have a dsb, live rock and caulpera (sp?) ... macro algae ...

 

[Adrinal]

Live rock, no light

Use the frag tool 3000 to make the pieces smaller (aka rusty screwdriver).

 

[joecoral]

have some filter floss or a filter sock in the first cmpartment to catch any suspended particles, then just LR rubble and either chaeto or caulerpa. the LR rubble does exactly the same as a DSB, but without the risk of any potentially harmful consequences if its accidentally disturbed

 

[chrissaysyes]

Im running my nano with no filters or pads, only rubble. The cycle seemed to go quicker and so far I've had better stability in there than any other tank. Could just be the lack of any serious bio-load. Only two fish and two hermits. Also growing caulerpa maxima in the display.