CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

nitrobacteria..is there a difference if its fully submerged or in a wet/dry?
like if it was in a wet/dry, would it have less of some sort of bacteria?

Nitrifying bacteria require copious amounts of oxygen and the more available oxygen there is the more can survive. Bio wheels are an example of wet dry filters... the wheel is turned by water pressure and is kept both always wet and for the vast majority of the time in direct contact with the air which has a much higher oxygen content then the water. These wheels support huge colonies of bacteria and that is why they are sold as supplemental to canister filters so often... that way you get the benifit of the canister and the benifits of a wet dry.

If your water has enough oxygen in it, then a submerged filter should be fully equiped to handle the load of your tank, however if you add a bio-wheel or wet dry then you can often slightly over stock the tank, due to it's ability to grow larger cultures of the bacteria.

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Adam