bio balls??

[randoke]

I have a 125 gallon. I have trouble getting my nitrates to 0. I have a sump filtration with a pad, bioballs, and a sponge. I have a skimmer and live rock. I've ready several threads but am having difficulty deciding if I should remove my bio balls and just go with the live rock. Any thoughts??

 

[hardcrab67]

My LFS guy says to leave the bio-balls in the sump in case you have an ammonia spike. He recommended leaving my refuge light on 24/7 and I've noticed a drop, but I'm still at 60ppm in nitrate. There are threads on pulling the sponges out of your sump in the archives. I pulled my pre-filter in the overflow, but not in the sump. When I do my water change I rinse the sponges w/ hot tap water, till I saw snails and pods in it. I'm now debating on leaving the sponge in and just rinse w/ fresh SW or pulling all together because I have the refuge. More pods the better right?

 

[opus18]

Originally Posted by randoke
I have a 125 gallon. I have trouble getting my nitrates to 0. I have a sump filtration with a pad, bioballs, and a sponge. I have a skimmer and live rock. I've ready several threads but am having difficulty deciding if I should remove my bio balls and just go with the live rock. Any thoughts??
how much LR do you have? if you have say 125# of LR, you have enough to sustain the tank and remove the balls slowly... over say a 2 week period... I'm in the process of doing that myself.

 

[ophiura]

I would start going through a whole list:
tank age
filtration
amount of LR
inhabitants
specific water parameters (how high is your nitrate? IMO, aiming for "0" is not always necessary and can take the joy out of the hobby)
Feeding schedule
In some cases - for example if these is a predator tank - I would absolutely stick with bioballs. If it is a reef with a lot of LR, it may not be necessary.