whiteshark
New member
I have been battling my arch enemy, nitrates, for years now. I do 30% water changes every week and still have a hard time keeping up with it. For a while I figured that everyone had to deal with this. But now i'm thinking that the problem could be with my old trickle filter with Bio Balls. I have heard that these things are nitrate factories, which makes sense. Now I am considering baffling the sump up, chucking the bioballs and making the sump a big fuge. My questions are...
1. Could this filter be the cause of my constantly increasing nitrates?
2. Am I underestimating the importance of the bacteria on the bio balls? (I would hate to remove em and have an ammonia spike and a tank crash)
I have about 110 lbs of rock. 55 or 60 lbs of it is live rock that I have had in my tank for 4 or 5 yrs. The rest is base rock that was added about 2 1/2 months ago. I would imagine by now nitrifying bacteria have colonized it. (am I right in assuming this?) I also have a fairly new sand bed, about 2 months old, but I imagine bacteria have colonized this by now also. If I do remove the bioballs, will there enough nitrifying bacteria on the rock to take care of the fish waste? (I have a yellow tang, hippo tang, cleaner wrasse, small maroon clownfish, orchid dottyback and a six spot goby).
Another possiblity for the nitrates, i was thinking, may be how much I feed the fish. I feed them 1 nori sheet per day (2in by 5 in), along with 1 and sometimes 2 cubes of prime reef, mysis, or a variety of other frozen foods per day. could this be producing the 20 ppm rise in nitrates I usually get per week? I have a small hang on fuge now with cheato, but I think it is just too small to keep up with the trates. Any imput is appreciated!
FYI- I use RO water to do my water changes. It contains no dectable nitrate.
Here is a link to a crude drawing of what I am considering doing.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ajk269/Plan.html
1. Could this filter be the cause of my constantly increasing nitrates?
2. Am I underestimating the importance of the bacteria on the bio balls? (I would hate to remove em and have an ammonia spike and a tank crash)
I have about 110 lbs of rock. 55 or 60 lbs of it is live rock that I have had in my tank for 4 or 5 yrs. The rest is base rock that was added about 2 1/2 months ago. I would imagine by now nitrifying bacteria have colonized it. (am I right in assuming this?) I also have a fairly new sand bed, about 2 months old, but I imagine bacteria have colonized this by now also. If I do remove the bioballs, will there enough nitrifying bacteria on the rock to take care of the fish waste? (I have a yellow tang, hippo tang, cleaner wrasse, small maroon clownfish, orchid dottyback and a six spot goby).
Another possiblity for the nitrates, i was thinking, may be how much I feed the fish. I feed them 1 nori sheet per day (2in by 5 in), along with 1 and sometimes 2 cubes of prime reef, mysis, or a variety of other frozen foods per day. could this be producing the 20 ppm rise in nitrates I usually get per week? I have a small hang on fuge now with cheato, but I think it is just too small to keep up with the trates. Any imput is appreciated!
FYI- I use RO water to do my water changes. It contains no dectable nitrate.
Here is a link to a crude drawing of what I am considering doing.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ajk269/Plan.html