why remove bio balls

[rhunter513]

Looking at the nitrogen cycle, ammonia is converted into nitrite which is then converted to nitrates. So in that sense every tank has nitrates. It just depends on how you remove them. Waterchanges are key but chemical media does do a good job of this as well. Chemi-pure and purigen are not just carbon.

 

I recently changed my water and my bag of chemi-pure, there was no bleaching. I keep my bag in a lower flow are where the water is free of detritus so the bags do not have a chance of collecting lots of junk. There would be no more junk in my bags than stuck in my live rock in my display or in my sand. Acutally there is a lot less

 

My nitrates are at 0 every time I test

 

 

 

Your lesson in the nitrogen cycle is great yet its missing the one thing that reef tanks have that freshwater tanks usually don't have unless they are plant tanks...the conversion of nitrates to nitroen gas. High quality live rock is pretty effective in converting nitrates to nitrogen gas. Add a good protein skimmer along with regular partial water changes and the tank should read aprox 0ppm nitrates. To each there own I guess. I am all for chemical media and will use them if there's a problem and I need a quick fix.

 

Sorry to hi-jack and get off topic...

[rhunter513]

so rhunter what would be your recomendations foor this situation ?

what everyone else said. slowly remove the bio media, keep your mechanical media clean and go nuts with the chemical media if that what you want.

 

happy reefing

[usssturgeon187]

thanks steve & rhunter you both have valid points ! as we all know there is no one perfect way to run a reef tank . It has been a couple of years for me & I just wanted to know what people are doing with filtration these days & what benefits they have . im going to take the advice of removing lr & bio-balls . i will be doing some rearanging in the filtration department . anyways thanks again for the insight !