Ditch Bio-Wheel? Nitrates 30-40ppm!

marineguys

marineguys

Member
PH 8.2
Calcium 470
Phos zero
Nitrites zero
Ammonia zero
NITRATES 30-40ppm
Dkh 13
Alk normal
55gal 220w T6
We do lots of water changes but nitrates are too high. Should we ditch the biowheel and add the canister? Also, our protein skimmer is a piece of crud. It's a seaclone 100. Any EASy tricks to it? allow it to microbubble at night? We are saving for a aquac remora. tank is 3 months old and has polyps, buttons, frogspawn, tang, 2 clowns, 4 chromis, 60lbs live rock, tons of snails and hermits.
 
eastland

eastland

Member
Spend a few $ and get a refugium. I couldn't drop Nitrates with my 5 month old 90 Gal. until I added the fuge. My Seaclone 100 works well, you just have to adjust the flow...but, I will upgrade to a Coralife Needle Wheel Skimmer 220 soon. I didn't like the microbubbles in the tank either, but once I set it in the fuge with cheato, parameters are finally reaching what others post about. Biowheels & canisters are a thing of the past...toss them.
 
nick76

nick76

Active Member
Originally Posted by marineguys
whats a good refugium? can i just get a 10gal tank and some pumps with a light? or buy one?
yes u can use a 10g, just run some pumps up and down from it and put some Macro(cheato) algae inside and a deep sand bed. If u do like a 3 to 4 inch sand bed u could get a cleaner clam and put it in there. They lower nitrates as the feed.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
dont throw away your bio-wheel its actually helping to keep your nitrates lower, heres why,
Ammonia is highly volatile in liquid form, the paddle wheel not only provides excellent bacteria growth and oxegenates your water for good aerobic bactira growth in the tank as well as on the wheel but, with a high water to air contact rate some off that ammonia is actually offgassing into the air and not staying in the tank to break down. thereby keeping the nitrates lower.
I agree that a good sump or refugium with cheatomorpha algae would definatly help, so would having a deep sand bed.
how often do you do water changes, how much water do you change when you do them?
how deep is your sand bed?
how many pounds of LR do you have?
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Biowheels and cannisters do not cause nitrate problems.
Lack of care and cleaning, overfeeding, and overstocking along with lack of export causes nitrate problems.
This is a 3 month old tank that is heavily stocked, IMO.
What and how often (and how much) do you feed?
As above, how much and how often do you change water? How often do you open your cannister and clean the filter (esp the pads?).
If you do not address some of the other problems, just adding a refugium will not help completely. YOu must address the root causes of nitrate problems.
 
marineguys

marineguys

Member
OK. Refugium is out. Too much hassle. I don't want a hang on fuge cause it's ugly with the other light on the fuge. I don't want to stick it underneath cause it will stink up my living room. So I decided I would add the canister. I broke the handle that clamps it down on the o-ring. Water leaked everywhere. About to throw the canister away. Put back the biowheel. Seaclone 100 started skimming again. But will keep saving for the aqua-c remora.
Now. Answers to your questions. My sand bed is 2in deep. I could definately make it thicker. Would that help any? I disagree with you that my tank is overstocked. The polyps I have are 2 in total. The buttons I have are 6 in total. I change the water with RO every Sat. about 10%. I feed around 11am (before my work) 1/2 cube of frozen mysis shrimp and a few flakes of either real dry sheet algae or formula 2. I repeat after work at around 11pm. I also have a slight algae problem that i scrub off the glass and rub off the sand bed. You can do a search for my username and I have posted pics of it. I have heard that skimmers won't remove nitrates. This true? Thanks guys for help!!!! and ladies
 
ci11337

ci11337

Active Member

Originally Posted by marineguys
OK. Refugium is out. Too much hassle. I don't want a hang on fuge cause it's ugly with the other light on the fuge. I don't want to stick it underneath cause it will stink up my living room. So I decided I would add the canister. I broke the handle that clamps it down on the o-ring. Water leaked everywhere. About to throw the canister away. Put back the biowheel. Seaclone 100 started skimming again. But will keep saving for the aqua-c remora.
Now. Answers to your questions. My sand bed is 2in deep. I could definately make it thicker. Would that help any? I disagree with you that my tank is overstocked. The polyps I have are 2 in total. The buttons I have are 6 in total. I change the water with RO every Sat. about 10%. I feed around 11am (before my work) 1/2 cube of frozen mysis shrimp and a few flakes of either real dry sheet algae or formula 2. I repeat after work at around 11pm. I also have a slight algae problem that i scrub off the glass and rub off the sand bed. You can do a search for my username and I have posted pics of it. I have heard that skimmers won't remove nitrates. This true? Thanks guys for help!!!! and ladies
When Ophi said heavily stocked, (not overstocked) she ment with fish, not corals. 1 tang, 2 clowns, 4 chromis
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Yes, fish -
IMO, you are basically fully stocked, in a tank that is very very young. It takes a long time for tanks to mature, and stocking should take, IMO, up to a year to be complete.
Skimmers remove things that typically break down into nitrates (proteins, lipids, etc).
How often did you rinse the filter cartridges in the filter?
What circulation do you have in the tank?
What type of test kit are you using and have you had the readings double checked?
How long are your lights on?
 
marineguys

marineguys

Member
Should i ditch some of the chromis? Would that lower nitrates? I forget what test kit i use. It's a nice one with glass tubes. It came with calcium, phos, nitrate, and dkh. Kent maybe? The lights are on too long i agree 10-12 hours. but I have read in books it doesnt matter for the algae and it shouldnt do a thing for the nitrates. I change the filter on the biowheel every 2-3 weeks. I have a powerhead filter near the top to swiish around and the biowheel and seaclone really have a lot of circulation.
 
tjake68

tjake68

Member
i wouldnt ditch biowheel tmo there pretty good as a 2 filter or as a backup the canister needs to be cleaned everything tat goes in there stays in there and raises nitrares you need to clean them often for them to work good there better set up for mechanical with carbon and diffrent type of special media imo
 
zman1

zman1

Active Member
A lot of good advice has already been given. One other thing to check is your change and top off water, make sure your not adding NO3 from your source water.
 
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