Thanks for the replies. Beardedbee, I am actually still using the Bioballs. I have tried everything under the sun with the biocubes. My last tank i had my heater in the first chamber, 2nd chamber was sand, some live rock rubble and chatoe with an underwater led with my skimmer in the 3rd chamber. This time around I have my skimmer in the 1st chamber with my heater and everything else left as is. I did remove the hood and added 2 marineland led strips. I believe as long as you do what your supposed to do and dont over feed either way you choose would be fine. I do a 10% water change every 2 weeks and once a month i clean the bioballs and thats it and my nitrates never get above .05. I did spend a lot of time selecting my clean up crew, as well as stocking certain corals to help filter like my clams( ok well not a coral) and feather dusters. I have a Diamond goby to work the sand bed and a few small brittle stars. I think in a small tank you have to have it all working together to keep everything stable because it can go south really really fast with such little water. I dont like to admit it but I have gone as long as 3 months without doing a water change and my nitrates were still at zero granted all the trace elements were probably gone but that only happened once. Only thing Im going to change is the lighting to get a little more blue in there so my big blue monti digitata really pops. Let me know if you have any more questions I'd be happy to answer.
thanks Al&Burke for the positive reply.
