Changing the tank

[Shery]

Just found this BB and would like to ask advice. I currently have a 35 gal hex, wet/dry w/2100 rio, bak\pak2,301 ph about 8" from bottom. approx 15lb of LR. 1yellow tang and 1 tomato clown w.hatian anenome, 2 small mushrooms.Oh yeah, CSL power compact 27W and 9w blue.will be adding to the sandbed to create anaerobic bottom. Should I slowly take bio-balls out? Seems to be a matter of preference, but would like to hear any advice. Thanks

[golfish]

I would add another 20+ lbs of LR and a 4-6" deep sand bed....yellow tang in a 35 hex? That's a lot of fish for a small tank[img]/ubb/frown.gif[/img]

Good luck

Mark

[reefland]

Welcome to Reefland Shery!

Without nutrient export or a deep sand bed, the bio-balls are probably causing excess nitrates. Have you performed any tests lately? My suggestion would be to add to your existing sand bed bringing it up to at least 4" utilizing a fine particle sand (SPASSE, time for the recipe [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img] ). Add some fauna to the send bed, perhaps from IPSF.com and begin removing your bio-balls. Do it slowly to make sure there is no spike from the bacteria removal. It will take a few days to replenish the bacteria that you are removing when taking out the bio-balls.

Scott

[scubadude]

Hi Shery [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]
Just wanted to say welcome to reefland [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img] I agree with the above post.

[Bughead]

I would add another 15 lbs of live rock. You need 4-6" sandbed for good biological filtration cycle. I would do this and wait a week or two, then take out about half the bioballs. Wait another week or two then take out the rest. It took me three months after increasing the sandbed and adding more LR to finally get all the bioballs out of my 100 gal. But then I tend to err on the side of caution and wanted to upset the cycle as little as possible during the transition. Some ppl remove all the bioballs at once after the tank has stablized. Like I said, I did it slowly, but I'm sure glad I did it.

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If it's broke, don't fix it---hide it.

[Shery]

Thanks to everyone. I think I'm on the right track. after tomorrow sandbed should be 4-5" deep. Yes, I do plan on adding more LR. My LFS goes on a hand picking trip ever so often and I wait for those times to buy rock.
The tank has been running for over a year now, and yes I now know that the tang needs to be in a larger tank. that is my goal (Maybe by this time next year)I've been doing things fairly slowly, so don't want to rush this step either. Thanks again [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]