[obring]

My 90 gal wet/dry has bio-balls. I was reading some of the archives and found out that I may be better removing bio-balls... I do have at least 80-90 lbs of LR in tank, and have been experiencing high nitrate readings (around 20-25 ppm). I any one has time, can you kinda coach me as to removal of the bio-balls? I am sorta skeptic on this matter....
Thanks!

[Ninong]

You may, or may not, want to do that at this time. Most of the people who have removed the bio-balls from their wet/dry filters have reef-tanks with live rock and deep sand beds, and, in most cases, protein skimmers.

Your tank is unusual in that it has livestock that is not usually associated with reef-tanks. In particular, the lionfish and the coral cats are relatively messy fish that, when mature, will be a problem as far as nitrate is concerned. You pointed out in a previous post that the coral cats may not actually be coral cats since your LFS is known for mislabeling its livestock, so I guess you will have to wait and see what they turn out to be as they mature. I would expect that the dwarf lionfish will eat some of the smaller fish as it matures, thereby reducing the bioload somewhat.

Your present nitrate levels are not really high for the type of tank you have at the present time. This is a good example of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." If you want to remove your bio-balls anyway, you should remove 1/3 of them at a time over a period of 6 weeks. If you are doing this in anticipation of adding corals to your tank (in addition to your mushrooms), you might want to consider increasing your sand bed depth to 4" and adding a protein skimmer to your setup.

Ninong

[obring]

Thanks for the input Ninong... I was thinking along the terms of the "if it aint broke dont fix it" myself... I have been thinking about all these things since my prob with raising the alk and lowering the Ca. After two weeks of attempts i have managed to raise the alk from 2.5 Mequ/L to 3.0, but strange enough, my Ca has stayed at 550 ppm. Last week I thought my Ca test may be bad so I bought a new one... but got exactly the same reading. I also found a more reliable LFS and he tested and backed up my readings... and we are both perplexed. I have also done two water changes (10 gal each) four days apart, it is driving me crazzy since i cannot figure out whats hapenning... so i read that people with w/d system seem to have the same problem... as for the Lion... I have been wondering when will he have the gobies for dinner.... so far he doesnt even bother them! I have tried to ID the supposed coral catfish (from new LFS I now know they ARE NOT coral catfish) but he can't figure what they are until i take a good picture of them and take it to him. My nitrates dropped drastically (AS THEY SHOULD) with the water changes... but are still fluctuating between 10 -20 ppm. I tested for NH3 four days ago and it registered 0.

WOW! I did not mean to get so winded.... THANKS NINONG!