Bioballs

[Romulan]

I took my bioballs out of my sump and now im having a terrible time trying to lower my nitrate level... anyone have any suggestions? ive removed all the filter media and bioballs from the sump, all that it has now is just my major pump a Rio2100.. its an acrylic sump.

My tank is a :

55 gallon tank with wet/dry sump.
Hood with 36w three strips of lighting (they are dual strips so i guess its 6strips)
over 40 pounds of live rocks, and 3 inch of sand, with mixture of live sand
Remora skimmer
3 fish- one perculla clown, red hawk, red coris wrasse.
2 types of mushroom pollyps

Temp 80
salinity 21
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates 70

The only additives that I use is: 1gallon mixture of distilled water/kalwassen mix drip... twice a week a cup full of Chromaplex (to feed my mushroom pollyps)

I feed them formula one flake food, and frozen food.

What can I do to get my nitrates down? ive tried water changes, ive done three of them the past week (about 30 gallons) and have not improved them. Should I add my filter media and bioballs back?

 

[Romulan]

also if it matters I been using the quick dip nitrate/nitrite made by Jungle to test my nitrates... I imagine those are pretty accurate.

 

[Garry thomas]

Try a differant test kit ? the test kit you are useing does it measure
nitrate/ nitrogen or nitrate ion..........there is a differance? nitrate/ nitrogen 10ppm equates to 40ppm nitrate ion...........have you got a problem in the tank? if not dont panic! and removing bio balls will not cause your nitrates to rise, sit back relax remember patience! reef tank things dont happen over night.....

 

[Romulan]

hmm im not sure, i believe it measures Nitrate (NO-)
3

 

[Anonymous]

Ok .Ok .what the heck are BioBalls..I have tow that I leave in my sak..noway would I put them in a sump or anything else besides my pants..Ha ha.......Hey still screwwd up from thae New yer Partee. :twisted: Woweeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! have Fun and hoppy Hoppy nuuuu year! Burp...........fart........wheweeeeeeeeeeee! Rerf central Suks.takes a year to bring the site uP! :twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

I took my bioballs out of my sump and now im having a terrible time trying to lower my nitrate level... anyone have any suggestions? ive removed all the filter media and bioballs from the sump, all that it has now is just my major pump a Rio2100.. its an acrylic sump.

My tank is a :

55 gallon tank with wet/dry sump.
Hood with 36w three strips of lighting (they are dual strips so i guess its 6strips)
over 40 pounds of live rocks, and 3 inch of sand, with mixture of live sand
Remora skimmer
3 fish- one perculla clown, red hawk, red coris wrasse.
2 types of mushroom pollyps

Temp 80
salinity 21
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates 70

The only additives that I use is: 1gallon mixture of distilled water/kalwassen mix drip... twice a week a cup full of Chromaplex (to feed my mushroom pollyps)

I feed them formula one flake food, and frozen food.

What can I do to get my nitrates down? ive tried water changes, ive done three of them the past week (about 30 gallons) and have not improved them. Should I add my filter media and bioballs back?

assuming you're using the proper size grain(like sugar, and smaller)-it'll prob'ly take a few months before the sb starts to really denitrify at the rate the tank produces NO3-patience :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Why did you take your filter media out.............I don't understand why you would do that? I would have left it all in. Hey I am fairly new at this Marine stuff..but hey ya got to have a working biofilter of some type or you will have a problem with Nitrates. I myself probably overfilter if anything. I have not had any measurable nitrates for about two months now. My tank has been up for about 6 months. It took about 3-4 months before I hit 0 consistantly. My tank is a 29 gallon,eheim canister,aquaclear 200 powerfilter,prizm skimmer and I just added a zoomed pwersweep 280 today. I am thinking of goin the Sump Path soon on my 55 Dwarf Lion Tank(when I set it up). Have Fun! Oh..hey..........really what do those bioballs do? Do you use other filter media too? I was kind of inimidated at first about the Sump thing but now I really need to limit the water I displace in my Dream Lion Tank.

 

[tazdevil]

Bangbang, He's converting to a DSB, which is ideal for total waste breakdown in a reef tank. Bioball/wet'dry setups are great for breaking dangerous wastes down to nitrates. There lies the problem (canister filters are worse yet). Nitrates are a great fertilizer for algae, esp hair algae. Do a search on "deep sand beds" or "DSB's" and you'll find a ton of info on them.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok..........so why don't I have any Nitrate buidup in my tank?? I have been checkin about twice a week for over a month now(last water change). Will do one anyway in a day or so. Thanks for the help on the DSB info. Have Fun!

 

[Anonymous]

Ok..........so why don't I have any Nitrate buidup in my tank?? I have been checkin about twice a week for over a month now(last water change). Will do one anyway in a day or so. Thanks for the help on the DSB info. Have Fun!

 

[Anonymous]

Romulan:

imho-you can also stop wasting your money on the chromaplex-you mushrooms don't need it at all-and it may be one source of your NO3


hth

 

[tazdevil]

Bangbang, what animals (including corals if any) fo you have? Do you have algae other than coralline? Are you sure the tests are accurate (just because an LFS does them, doesn't mean they are, and older test kits lose their accuracy).

 

[Anonymous]

Bangbang, what animals (including corals if any) fo you have? Do you have algae other than coralline? Are you sure the tests are accurate (just because an LFS does them, doesn't mean they are, and older test kits lose their accuracy).

Yes ........I have some green hair algae that my animals keep cut down like a "golf green". My test kit is the same I started with four months ago and works just fine. I do not have any Corals yet but I do have a couple of Aiptasia Stalks left(my two peppermints took care of the rest). I have several small redlegs and blueleg hermits,one small Foxface,brittle star,and a very happy TR Percula. I have about 15-20 pounds of liverock.heck......maybe 30. I never trust my LFS to do tests anymore. I went to several different LFS and got very different readings at all but two out of 8 stores. I go to the 2 that had the same readings using different kits. I get the same results they do. Thanks for the response. Have Fun!

 

[tazdevil]

The hair algae could be taking up all the free nitrate in the water, hence the "0" reading. LR should be helping denitrify as well.