Bio Balls!?

[MissG55]

Hi, I have been running my Percula 90 for approximately 12 months. I have a 1 inch sand bed and approximately 35kg of live rock. In addition to the 3 x 1000lph circulation pumps i have added a vortech mp10(running at approx 1500lph on the left of the tank and a Koralia evolution(5200lph) aimed at the surface on the right side of the tank. I have been running Rowaphos and Carbon at the end of my trickle filter for the past 9 months.
I do a 10 % water change every week and am careful with feeding!
My water tests have all remained good: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Phosphate 0, PH 8.1, SG 1.026, Calcium 425... Here is my problem Nitrates They are very stubborn and loiter between 10 and 20 which i know is bad!!!

Now i have all the info out of the way my question!!
My trickle filter is currently full of bio balls. Should i remove them? As i have read varying oppinions about them being Nitrate factories. If i do remove them should i put LR in there(it will not get any light). Or is there another reason i can not reduce my Nitrates?
I also have filter sponges on 2 of the circulation pumps which do get clogged and need cleaning ( RO water ) or flow is greatly reduced. Could this be my problem?
Help!!
Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated.
If i have missed anything let me know.. I am not heavily stocked - only a percula clown, Ruby head fairy wrasse, 20 various snails, 3 peppermint shrimp and a small selection of corals.

 

[donny7]

If possible, you could do what I did, turn your trickle filter into a DIY HOB fuge. Simply cut the media basket, or get some small pieces of acrylic sized to your filter, and baffle the water near the intake pump. Place on about 3/4's of the way above the bottom of your filters media compartment as well. Underneath that baffle, throw in small pieces of LR rubble and if you can get it, chaeto algae. You can get a light to clip onto your tank or your filter that would provide adequate lighting for the algae.

The chaeto algae will consume your nitrates by binding them. You then harvest this, throw it out, and let more grow. Rinse, repeat

 

[MissG55]

I like the sound of chaeto and live rock rubble - a bit more natural. Would the light need to be particularly powerful? I think i will take this slowly though and decrease the balls a bit at a time. Do not want to shock the tank!

 

[nkd5024]

MissG,

I agree with Donny and think you should remove the bioballs. I have never used them but have heard the same things as you did about them being nitrate factories.
Do you have a sump for you tank? What about a Protein Skimmer as you didn't mention you had one.
Or just the HOB trickle filter which honestly I thought was old school and no longer used.

If you do remove all the bioballs you could just do it at once. If you do it slowly you just leaving the problem in there longer IMO.
The light for the HOB refugium wouldn't have to be really strong and some people just use shop lights (incandescent bulbs) although I run power compacts over my refugium, T5's would work just as well although you only need a short bulb to fit over your filter.
The macro algae will help a lot with your nitrates. A lot of people don't like to use caulerpa as it can release spores (seeds) into the tank and start growing everywhere but it grows so much faster than cheato that I take that risk which many think to be quite small.
I actually have both cheato and caulerpa in my fuge and it seems to work well.

As to one of your original questions, if you added liverock into the filter instead of the bioballs but didn't put any light over it, the liverock would still host bacteria and help filter the tank.
The only difference is no algae would grow on it.

I just looked up the percula (0 tank you said you had and it answered my protein skimmer question.
With only two fish you definitely aren't over stocked in a 70 gallon tank.
In your case I can't see any other reason than the bioballs that you have nitrates as you do water changes weekly.

If you have any other questions feel free to send me a personal message and I usually respond within the day,
Nick D.

 

[MissG55]

MissG,

I agree with Donny and think you should remove the bioballs. I have never used them but have heard the same things as you did about them being nitrate factories.
Do you have a sump for you tank? What about a Protein Skimmer as you didn't mention you had one.
Or just the HOB trickle filter which honestly I thought was old school and no longer used.

If you do remove all the bioballs you could just do it at once. If you do it slowly you just leaving the problem in there longer IMO.
The light for the HOB refugium wouldn't have to be really strong and some people just use shop lights (incandescent bulbs) although I run power compacts over my refugium, T5's would work just as well although you only need a short bulb to fit over your filter.
The macro algae will help a lot with your nitrates. A lot of people don't like to use caulerpa as it can release spores (seeds) into the tank and start growing everywhere but it grows so much faster than cheato that I take that risk which many think to be quite small.
I actually have both cheato and caulerpa in my fuge and it seems to work well.

As to one of your original questions, if you added liverock into the filter instead of the bioballs but didn't put any light over it, the liverock would still host bacteria and help filter the tank.
The only difference is no algae would grow on it.

I just looked up the percula (0 tank you said you had and it answered my protein skimmer question.
With only two fish you definitely aren't over stocked in a 70 gallon tank.
In your case I can't see any other reason than the bioballs that you have nitrates as you do water changes weekly.

If you have any other questions feel free to send me a personal message and I usually respond within the day,
Nick D.

Thank you so much. Sorry i have not responded earlier.
The bio balls will be coming out.
I am sure you saw as you looked up the tank that it came all ready kitted out with the trickle filter and bio ball set up and i went with it on the advice of my LFS. Since this post i have removed the sponges from the 2 canister filters( which seems to have made the nitrates drop already) Bio balls next.
I am glad i can put the rock in there with no light to start with. Was worried about it dying off and polluting the tank in some way.

Thanks again. Will be sure to pm you - if i can figure out how - if i have any more questions.

 

[woody88]

If you plan on using a macro algae then Go with cheato as caluerpa can be hard to look after as I've heard it can die off suddenly. Just place some cheato in a media bag as this will keep it under control and will also stop it being a tasty snack for your fish and inverts.
Cheato competes with any other nuisance algae for nitrates and phosphates so you won't need to run any phosphate remover once you have cheato. Light wise charto doesn't require anything special. Just a simple submersible led would suffice.
Ad for your LR rubble. This does not require light at all and coraline algae WILL still grow on it but you'll find it will be pink in color instead of purple.

Bioballs and ceramic noodles are terrible for housing nitrates and will more than likely be the source of your problem. Get them out and chuck them.
If you replace them with LR rubble make sure there are plenty of gaps amongst the rubble so flow can get amongst it. It will need rinsing out regularly too as these also can be potential nitrate farms.

 

[mini_matt]

Not intending to hijack but are the ceramic 'hoola hoops' type things any better than bio balls in the whole nitrate trap thing? As they are easily cleaned similar to live rock

 

[steelhealr]

Old post, but, uh: shouldn't. JMO. SH