Bye bye bio balls!

Bio-balls and live rock do not do the same thing. Bio-balls get it to the N03 stage, and thats it. Live rock processes N03.

 

i thought nitrates are the end of the line you either need macro algae or remove it by water changes

 

the sand bed and live rock process some of the n03 into gas, thus helping to reduce nitrates. Remember when your tank was new, all the little bubbles between the glass and sand???

 

I'm in the rio grande valley... south of san antonio in Harlingen...

so basically replacing bioballs with live rock is negating nothing ???????

 

The deeper holes in the live rock get anaerobic and do contain bacteria that will completely break down nitrates. It isnt going to be much but will be better than the bio balls. The problem is that you also have more cracks and places for debris to collect in liverock. This debris getting broken down ends up as nitrates.

I would assume you would get better nitrate reduction using larger pieces of live rock but that is really a guess. I am basing this on the thought that a certain depth into the rock will have enough oxigen to kill the nitrate reducing bacteria. Once past this level (say an inch) the anaerobic bacteria will start growing. Therefor the bigger the rock the more space without oxigen.

 

So replace the bioballs with 1 large piece of rock... where 1/3 sits underwater at the bottom on the tray... and the other 2/3 sits above water getting hit with water from under the drip tray?

 

Final game plan...
I'm going to remove the bioballs ... 1 / 3 each day over the 3 days...
The I'm going to remove the egg crate at the bottom where the bioballs sat on... and place 1 big piece of live rock in there...

However, I was just thinking... isn't it going to be awfully noisy down there from the drip tray to the water level where the rock is mostly submerged... ????

 

i am no expert but i think the rock has to be fully submerged, i think u'll have die off issues if its not, just go with smaller pieces, as in live rock rubble and full in wat ya can.

 

Cant you just run your wet dry filter with more water to get it fully submerged. Im joining the list of people that heard not to take out all boi balls at once. You will be taking tons of bacteria out of your system at once. Are you getting fully cured rock? This may help to negate the effects of taking all that bacteria out at once. Let us know your results if they are good I may follow in your path so I can get something in my filter that can process NO3. Good luck.

 

My first step was actually to remove the sponge in the area between the bio balls... and the sump...

I was supposed to clean that thing or replace it often and did not! I'm going to see if that makes a difference...

Bio balls 1/3 at a time will be the next step... will keep posting in the future on this thread.