Bio Media Helping or Harming?

Hey everyone,
I know this has probably been talked about over and over again but I just want to clarify.
I have an 80g Mixed reef, i do not run a sump, i run 2 emperor 400 filters, over 100lbs of live rock and 70-75lbs of live sand, CPR bak pak dual pak skimmer.
My question is, is the bio filter media that is in the emperors doing more harm than good, are they becoming a nitrate factory?
let me know what you think.
Thanks in advance for the help and advise.

 

what is your current nitrate level Diverdan?


if you periodically rinse out the trays to remove accumulated detritus, then cannister or HOB filters do not always equate to nitrate factories

a more valid question may be, "with the amount of rock I have in my system, do I really need additional real estate for bacteria to colonise"

the answer to that question, in most cases is "No you do not"

thus removing the media in stages (because some of the bacteria you have already lives there) and allowing additional bacteria to colonise the rock work between removal
(removing 25% per week over a 4 week period is the typical manner used when trying to remove bio media from cannisters )

once the bio media is out - you could run the cannister for GFO or Carbon or other forms of chemical media
you could use it with mechanical media to help remove particulates ( need to clean and or replace the filter matting used regularly otherwise that do become a possible source of nitrates in the future if left to go biological)

or after 4 weeks, when its empty, you could take it off line completely, provided you had other means for running carbon GFO etc (HOB reactors for example)

the results of your nitrate test readings, will help you decide if you need to change anything or not

increased maintenance of the unit as it is
or re assigning the unit for chemical filtration purposes whilst leaving the bio filtration work load to be done on the rock/ sand etc in your tank

HTH

Steve

 

Parameters
Ca 420
Alk 8
Sg 1.026
pH 8.1
Nitrates .5
Phos .025
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0

This is all from memory, I'm at work and dont have my notebook, but almost 100% acurate.
I guess my biggest problem I'm having is the Red Algae (cyano) on the sand bed. its not hairy its more smooth, and i just cant get rid of it.
I dont overfeed, i have plenty of flow across the sandbed without stiring it up.
Weekly water changes of 10-15% i just dont know where Im going wrong.

 

If you have readable test results and organisms like cyno or algae
then its generally accepted that in reality the number are probably higher than the readings your getting simply as some are being utilised by those pests

you dont have a nitrate factory with a reading of 0.5 (If you had said 30 or 40, thats different)

are you using GFO? at all, because lowering the phosphates using GFO, whilst continuing the weekly water changes combined with manual removal by syphon of the cyno you have should help to erradicate it over a few weeks IME

Steve

 

I was under the impression that my readings weren’t as high as they appear to be, I am running activated carbon but am not running a phosphate remover, what would be your recommendation on a GFO.

 

if you have algaes and cyno Diverdan, they are usin some and your only measuring the balance left in water column

GFO - I like Rowphos as its best of what is routinely available to me
but the BRS product is also liked by a number of reefers as is the 2 little fishes product Phosban

 

Thanks Steve for all your help, i did another water change yesterday and manually removed the cyano from the substrate as well as cleaned out the bio media baskets, i removed all the contents from one media basket and added activated carbon the the basket that i removed the media. i will wait a week and remove another tray of media and add a phosphate remover.
Do you run the phosphate remover 24-7? and how long does the phosphate media last, like how often should i replace it?
thank you for all your help. it is greatly appreciated.

 

Welcome Diverdan

when starting with GFO on a tank thats never used it before, commence with half the stated dose thats on the packet
typical dose would be 1 table spoon for every 10 gallons - so you use 1 table spoon for every 20 gallons

run this amount for 1 week and then remove and replace with same QTY

all the time measure your PO4 each week and once its down at 0 which may take a few weeks you can then start running full amount and leave it for 1 or 2 months (dependent on algae - frequency of scrapng glass is great indicator that its time to renew the GFO)

test the water coming out from the cannister before it gets to main tank (lift return hose and collect the 5 mils you need from there during the half treatment doses

basically if the water leaving the cannister is the same PO4 level as the DT, its safe to assume the GFO has absorbed all it can
so this is a great indicator on frequency of change whilst you are measuring phosphate


Steve

 

Steve
thanks for all the great info. I will definetely get some phosphate remover this weekend. I also have some red algae in some of my rocks and ever since i read your post about the algae fix I started to dose the with the algae fix. that write up was awesome.
Again, thank you for all your help.