are biowheels bad for salt water

[sharky71]

I've been reading that biowheels cause your nitrates to spike. Is this true? I have an emperor 400 and was wondering if I should just use a fluval 404 instead?

 

[bang guy]

Nitrate slowly builds up in an aquarium because they are the end product of nitrification.
It doesn't matter what your filtration methon is, they will build up unless they are removed.
Typical Nitrate removal techniques include:
Skimmer (removes some stuff be fore it degrades)
Water change
High quality live rock
Live deep sand bed
Harvesting algae
Harvesting fast growing corals
Chemical adsorption
Most experienced reefkeepers use some combination of the above methods.