i have questions and need answers

[feixjai]

ok heres the story. i have a 20 gallon because there was no room in the house for a big tank. and now my parents bought a new house and my sister is moving out. so i get to have a room now and set up a bigger tank. my big brother which has a 100 gallon fish tank for freshwater is making a pond for his arowana at the new house so i get to set up a 55 in the replace of the 100. and he is going to give me his home-made wet/dry. the problem is that i want to set up a sump but my brother thinks its a bad idea. and instead he wants to me use his wet/dry which is full of bio-balls. at my lfs they have big tanks with lots and lots of bio-balls and all their fish seem good. so i was wondering if bioballs are ok for the tank? another question: yesterday i got a feather duster. got home acclimated it for 1 hour and then put it in the tank. the next morning which is today i saw it was slanted out and i decided to fix it. all was good until a few hours later. i got home and he was in his tube. its been about 3 hours and he is still in his tube. whats wrong with him? another question: yesterday my friend and i went to the lfs and my friends dad decided to buy a plant which was called caulerpa rock. he didnt know what it ate so he ask the lfs and they said it eats nitrate. and he gave me some since there was soo much. my question is what if there is no nitrate for it to eat? my water paraments today were good: sg 1.024, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, ammonia 0.m temps are 78 degrees. thanks in advance

 

[f1shman]

Okay how long has this tank of yours been setup? A wet/dry is a sump filled with stuff, bioballs can be okay, but can also become nitrate factories. You could take the bioballs out and put in live rock and that would be better. Feather dusters naturally go in and out of their tubes and depending on if they're startled or not they will stay in their for a longer amount of time. The caulepra is a type of algae that helps reduce the nitrates, it doesn't eat them, just helps reduce them.

 

[streetsurf]

I would strongly suggest doing a search on this web site about the nitrogen cycle. It will help explain a lot of the questions that you have. If your tank is newly set up, I suggest that you check your levels daily and I personally would not add any new livestock until your tank cycles.

 

[feixjai]

i still have my 20 gallon up and i am not gonna start going into the 55 yet it would be in about a month of so until the pond is done. my tank has been up for 6 months now. and my brothers so called wet/dry filter is really weird. its just a pump from the main tank going into the filter tank and then the water goes through the cloth and foam and then into the bioballs and then theres a cover and it drains all the water and theres a pump under that which blows the water out ill try and get a drawing.
ok here it is i hope it works

 

[snipe]

So your bro has an above tank wet/dry I would revers the pumps and put it under the tank but thats just me.
The plant removes nitrates from the water usually most tanks have nitrates of some sort and it will be ok with or with min they use light as well. Sounds to me like your feather duster went for a trip he left his tube and is finding a new home or turned into fish poo.

 

[feixjai]

my feather duster decided to come out again so yea. and about the above tank wet/dry, what is fishman talking about the live rock? can i just take out the bioballs and then put the live rock in replace of the bio balls. do i need live sand in there and plants like most sumps?

 

[snipe]

If you wanted you could remove the bioballs and make it a refugium but live rock can trap waste just as easy as bio/balls can.

 

[fishieness]

where do you want to go with the tank?
i know many people like bioballs
but many people dont
snipe is right, you can make it into a refugium if you would like
but orphiua has said many times that bio balls, she thinks, are great for a FOWLR tank, but she wouldnt use them with very sensitive corals like SPS.

 

[snipe]

I like them to but its the point of ppl saying replace them with live rock. Live rock is the same thing just not round. It can trap stuff just like bioballs.

 

[feixjai]

if i do replace the bio balls with the live rock, how would i do that? with the set up my brother already made? do i just put a piece of live rock in the tank and thats it? i was also thinking about putting a fluval 104 in there also with the refugium.

 

[exile415]

just remove the bioballs and get LR. it does the same , just doesnt become a nitrate facotry.

 

[snipe]

LOL. Im tired of seeing this. Do you know why bioballs produce so many nitrates? Because thats what there for. Do you know why live rock dont? Because there isnt as mutch surrfice area on live rock as there is bioballs. Do you know food can stick to either and cause problem? I know some ppl have nitrate problems because of a wet/dry. The problem with that is if they have huge amount of nitrate buildup there is 1 of 2 things happening. They have to mutch amonia in the tank by over feeding or something dieing for some other reason. Or there not doing reg water changed. In a tank without a wet/dry you would keep the amonia 0 for the nitrates to even get there through a wet/dry you have to have an amonia source you cut that away and you have no nitrates!!