[dolphins8426]

My brain is going to explode about balls or no balls.
I am new to this hobby so any info is great
I currently have a 55gallon tank with about 60 lbs of live rock. I also have 40lbs of crushed coral that i mixed 20lbs of live sand into that. I am assuming that all 60 lbs will eventually become live? Tank has been up and running about 4 weeks now and all my levels are perfect. Now this is my question. Safe to remove the balls a handful at a time every other day without serious problems and do I have enough ls and lr to be safe? I plan on making it a reef tank with some fish so I hear its best to not have blue balls. I am also using a 48" Nova extreme 8 bulb 432watts. That should be plenty to house pretty much I want to put in it?

Set-up
Coralife r/o 50gpd, 48" nova extreme 8 bulb, 60lbs live rock,60lbs live sand,wet/dry filter with about 600gph return pump back to tank, power heads. Cycle is complete...............

[reefbeginner]

sounds like a good setup. You will want the balls out, slowly is better

[dolphins8426]

Ill post a pic. How do i do it?

[dolphins8426]

damn picture is to big i need to compress it. arggg

[dolphins8426]

Picture of tank? Tell me if i am off to a good start on this new hobbie and any info on my balls would be great

[zhenya]

Ditch the bio balls...
Nice set up with the exception of the fact that you decided to mix crashed coral with finer sand. In the long run the larger particle sized crashed coral will end up on top of the finer stuff.
I would simply remove a handfull of the bio-balls at the time, like you suggested, and everything should be just fine. I think you have enough live rock for starters and if you have nice skimmer to boot you should be OK for the reef tank set up. Go slow, patience is the key they say...