To Remove or Not to Remove?!?!?!?

I have been running a penguin hang on back filter with a bio-wheel on my 37 gallon for some extra mechanical filtration. The tank has been setup since November, should I remove the bio-wheel? Is that just adding to my nitrates? I checked them the other day and they where at 20. Also would this filter be sucking up copepods? I really would like to have copepods living in my tank.

 

Well i had my penguin on for about 1 year...took it off so its just the skimmer. going for 3 years and the tank is fine plus i got more room ^^

 

It shouldn't suck up copopods and even if it does would hurt as they will probably start a colony in your filter like a refugium. As for the bio wheel. The bio-wheels are beneficial for a while but I would replace it periodically. I really don't have a problem with the nitrites and nitrates with my bio-wheel as much as I do with phosphates leaching out into the water by the bio-wheel.
What do you have in your tank? How much are you feeding? Do you have live rock or sand? I highly doubt your nitrate problem is due to your bio-wheel. I think it may be due to possible overload in your tank or too much nutrients(feeding). I could be wrong but that is my asssumption! Good luck. Try using some nitrate remover. They sell it at your local pet shop and also perform a water change.

 

Well my tank has a Scooter Blenny, a Coral Beuty Angel, a Velvet Damsel, a Fiji Damsel, a small Yellow Tail Damsel, a small Clarki Clownfish, a Long Tentacle Anemone, some coral (lacking there), a small Camel Shrimp, and a gold CBS shrimp. Overstocked isnt it?:-[ The tank has about 45 pounds of live rock and a 2 inch deep live sandbed. I added some Prime (supposed to remove some nitrates) and I changed 5 gallons.

EDIT: ohh and my skimmer is broken on that tank, I am gonna get a new one soon.:-[

 

you could keep the filter just do the change of media once every 2-3 depending if its getting bad or not also just do water changes to reduce your nitrates its just a normal cycle. also if your tank is just a fish only really dont need RO water but if reef i would highly recommend it and you can just save up and mean while buy it at your lFS

 

Interesting assortment of fish. Just be careful with the DAMSELS, they are very aggressive. You don't have a very big bio-load as far as overstocking is concerned. I would build up your sand bed however, to around 4"or so to increase your bacteria level. There are so many articles out there now about dsb's(deep sand beds) and the benefits of them!
I would definitely get the skimmer up and running and add some carbon to your hang-on filter as well.

 

Red flag: skimmer is broken
The skimmer is the most important part of your filtration
You can do with out a media type filter as a lot of us do but you MUST have a skimmer