Need help bad!!

No. If you clean your bio-balls on a regular basis and don't overfeed your tank, you shouldn't have any nitrate problems.

 

How do you clean them and how often?

 

AFMD CPR AquaFuge Refugium Medium this will solve your problem, use it with
CaribSea Mineral Mud Refugium and some see grass you will be fine

 

Well, if you don't overfeed and/or overstock, you shouldn't ever have to clean them. However, if you do overfeed and/or overstock, you can clean them about once a year. You will only want to clean one half of your bio-balls at a time by pulling them out of the wet/dry and rinsing them with salt water. Wait a few weeks, then clean the other half.

That being said, I have run several wet/drys for several years without ever having to clean the bio-balls and I never had a nitrate problem.

 

That's what I was told, it's the way to go.

Thanks

 

I would get rid of the artificial rock and replace with live and definitely do a refuge

 

Im gona agree with micko and get some live rock. The bacteria gained will help you in filtration and overall health of you tank

 

I would run some media, keep up the water changes and turn up the skimmer full blast.

 

if you don't have them already, i'd say throw a few varieties of snails into the tank. astrea, cerith, nassarius, nerite, etc.....it sounds as though you may have a significant dietrus build up. i would definately phase out the faux rock and introduce live rock slowly, making sure it is cycled so there isn't such a shock to your system. due to your possible high nitrates i'd think the cucumber is out of the question...although you said you have a cleaner shrimp in the tank so maybe your params are already on the low end (and with some cuc's, if they die they can severely disrupt your water quality).
also, i've seen bio-balls work and i've also seen if you don't take care of them properly, they can crash a system. as someone stated earlier, definately give a rinse to half of the bio-balls and a few months later rinse the other half. you don't want to do it all at once, otherwise you'll lose the bacteria population and there would of been no point to using the bio-balls in the first place. if it were me...i would get rid of the bio-balls and replace with rubble rock...but that's just my opinion. i also won't get into the whole "your tang is too big for that size of tank, tangs need plenty of swimming room" o'well....i guess i just did. hope that helps...

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and disagree with Jason.
In my opinion, and based on my experience with Fish Only tanks, I don't think the quantity of fish in this 36 gallon tank is unreasonable.
Reef tanks have lots of rock that replaces the water. The tank that gmccntryboy described has a lot more water per tank volume than a reef tank would.
However, you may be overfeeding your fish. I'm guilty of that, too. My tank has high nitrates as well (20-40ppm).