High Nitrates

Thats what i have is the aqueon proflex sump its pretty nice, the bio-balls are gone, im going to add the sand tomorrow now i just need to decide on a light for it, im not sure how many watts im going to need.

 

420, as to "yanking out" bioballs. Over the years I've seen a number of tank crashes caused by doing so. As mentioned briefly in my previous post, bioballs will out compete the bacteria on the liverock. This is because the they are exposed to O2 and the O2 increases the efficiency of denitrifying bacteria. So, there will not be as much nitrifying bacteria on the LR, because the bacteria on the bioballs is using up the food source. if you remove the bioballs quickly, the population of nitrifying bacteria on the LR may not be enough to keep up with ammonia production from decaying biomatter, so this could cause a mini-cycle. So, most experts will recommend to take them out slowly.

As to keeping the bioballs clean, this may not help due to something described in my previous post. This "proximity association" as R.H.F. has previously called it is a common phenomena in the micro biology world and a lot of people seem to think it is applicable here. So, detritus may not be the only reason bioballs seem to be a "nitrate factory".

 

I did a 50% removal one day and removed the rest the following week.


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i had about 25 percent out and i took out more before i started messing around with it so i just pulled the rest 10 minutes ago, if i have a mini cycle i think at this point im ok with that, as long as i can get my fuge in and going tomorrow like i had planned i should be ok. but its my sons birthday party tomorrow so i may only get my sand in tomorrow unless i can sneak by the fish store on my way to get his cake lol

 

one last thing, do you have any idea's what kind of light and what else i could put in my fuge to make it more efficient?

 

if you pulled the bb quickly, you may want to cut back on feeding a bit for a few days. Really depends on your tank though. I don't think it is heavily stocked? That would obviously be more of an issue.

 

i use an 8watt light of america undercabinet light 13"..its was 9$ at walmart..works fine for my small fuge..

but any shop light withone of those spiral 6500k bulb works fine

 

yeah i figured someone would say something about what i said..ha..idk i have seen and read about many people yank out bio balls with no ill effects, but the hobby is different for each individual..

 

The 5000K-6500K cf spotlights from lowes or HD are usually good. It depends what algae you want to grow though.

 

People do a lot of things and get away with it. It dosn't really hurt to be cautious. Once you've seen a few people loose their entire tanks because they rushed this, you tend to take a different view