Replacement for bio balls

[austinfish]

I know this has been covered at some point but here it goes anyway.
I'm considering getting rid of my bio balls. Is there anything that can be suggested to replace them?? Maybe something that does not need as much care and does not trap so much muck.
Thanks in advance for any imput!

 

[buzz]

What is your set up?

 

[austinfish]

I have a 45 gal, with 220 VHO lighting, and a wet dry, over the back. I have live rock and I just replaced crushed Coral with live sand. I'm having problems with phosphate and Algea, but I'm doing daily water changes and hope to get this under control.
Not too long ago I rinsed my bio balls in tank water, to clean up the muck in them. I was hoping to find something that did not need to be cleaned like this.
I thought about not replacing them at all, but I'm scared to just pull them out and hope my live rock can deal with it.
I have about 30lbs of Live Rock, 1 sailfin tang, a rock blennie,
tom clown, and a eight line wrasse.
I'm getting a bunch of tank cleaners this week.

 

[shadow678]

An excellent replacement media for bioballs would be FilStar's Bio-Chem Stars. They are set up the same way your bioballs are, but there is no maintenance. They provide 30 times as much surface area as typical bioballs, for growing bacterial colonies. 4 stars will provide biofiltration for 20 gallons of water, so for your 45 gallon tank, you would only need about 10 stars. Usually, they are sold in 20-star bottles, which will adequately filter 100 gallons. Just as your bioballs did not filter out nitrates, these will not either, so you will have to either keep doing regular water changes often enough to keep your levels low, or add a nitrate reduction chamber to your tank. HTH

 

[austinfish]

Thanks,
I have not even focused on nitrate, I bet that has cause my algea problems. Also I realized I'm not able to keep my tank below 82 which I think is really bad.