Bio Balls

[irondog]

I have a 46g fowlr an justed started getting corals,kenya tree,bta an zoo's,i'm using a wetdry filter cc botttom about 60pounds of lr, was at lfs today they said to get rid of cc an bio balls,i should have ls an the chamber where bio balls are i should use a sock with carbon an another sock with phosban an filter pad on bottom of wetdry i have 2 hippo tangs a small singapore angel 2 dansels 2 small percula clowns an scooter about 20 hermits an 5 snails
ammonia 0
nitirite 0
nitrate around 0
calcium 460
kh 11.8dkh
alk 4.32 meg/l
ph 8.2
temp 80
sg 1.024
phosphates like 0.5
2 powerheads 270gph plus return pump rio 600
15 watt uv
turboflotor 1000 multi skimmer
i'v been doing water changes every 10 days (10 gallons)justed started using ro water last month,water is very clear,what should i do,my tank been up an running 4yrs now
my lighting is 20"pc 1x150hqi 2x36 flouresents 1x150 10000k thanks

 

[n_sarno]

yikess 2 hippos in there.. ppl are yelling - me for wanting one for my 75.. hope you plan to upgrade!
I would get rid of the bioballs and put LR in there.. Dont do it all at once though..

 

[thomas712]

First off, do not replace bio balls for rocks unless your going to change your method of using a wet/dry. There is no sence in reducing your benefits of bio balls by changing them out with rocks, rocks will not save you from nitrates and rocks will not work better than bio balls unless you submerge them. Even then "better is in the eye of the beholder"
You can run the wet/dry with bio balls or you can change to the sock method, personally, since you have the balls, keep them, no sence spending more money to change things. If you want a more natural approach then you can add a refugium and then take out the bio balls.
Some folks put sand in the wet/dry but I personally stay way from something like that unless you have baffles in place to keep the sand from getting sucked up in pumps. Perhpas you can go back to the refugium idea, have sand and cheatomorpha macro algae, get rid of the balls and have a more natural filtration system. just an idea.
IMO, IME >The crushed coral could go, in many cases crushed coral is simply detrimental to the overall system in many ways. But if you like it, and you are not seeing a high nitrate problem then you don't have to change a thing, if it isn't broke then you don't have to fix it. Just know that many have made the change and almost all have been very happy with sand over crushed coral. If you have been going strong for 4 years then your doing something right.

I won't hound you about the tangs, but if they get to big, be responsible........AND UPGRADE TO A BIGGER TANK

Thomas

 

[irondog]

I'm kinda leaning toward ls,i kinda like the idea of the removing bio balls for the sock of carbon an phosban,but i dont know how my system would react,everything in tank is soo heathly i just dont want to mess anything up,an how should i go about removing cc,an tangs will be moved to larger tank when they get bigger,very small now(2") thanks for responding guys

 

[chadman]

Originally Posted by irondog
I'm kinda leaning toward ls,i kinda like the idea of the removing bio balls for the sock of carbon an phosban,but i dont know how my system would react,everything in tank is soo heathly i just dont want to mess anything up,an how should i go about removing cc,an tangs will be moved to larger tank when they get bigger,very small now(2") thanks for responding guys
i too have cc in my tank and i do not know what to do about it...my nitrates have been slightyly high but i do not think i am going to be taking my whole tank apart and remove all the cc and put in ls

 

[p312wr1]

You won't believe how much junk is under the cc until you start taking it out. Even with gravel vac it just builds up.
I did it because I could not get nitrates low. I also have sump and just removed half of bio balls. I will eventually have only 1/4 full with bio balls.
All in all sand looks a lot better too!

 

[irondog]

Doing water change today,gonna pull out all my bio balls an replace with,a bio chem zorb,an kent marines power phos,hope this gets my phosphates down,i think next week i'm gonna switch over from cc to ls,how much ls should i put in like 1"