Bio Wheel or No Bio Wheel - How is my filtration?

[mnestroy]

Question about my filtration.

I have a 40g Breeder

- AquaC Remora Pro with Mag Drive 3 Protein Skimer
- Eheim 2026 Professioanel II Series Canister Filter
- Emperor 400 Hang on Filter (with two bio wheels)
- 2 Rio 600 Powerheads
- 40Pounds of live rock

How does this sound as far as my filtration goes? I can't seem to get my Nitrates below 20, I was wondering if it is because of the bio wheels?

Any other comments on my filtration? (is it good enough, etc?)

[dskidmore]

Yeah, might lower nitrates by ditching the biowheels. What media do you have in the canister? Frequent cleaning of your canister media may also help. Some people like to remove thier canister media and just use the canister as a pump, and for carbon. The live rock should be able to handle all your biological filtration needs with enough circulation. The skimmer should be removing most of what a floss pad/filter would remove.

[mnestroy]

In my canister filter I have:

Ehfisubstrat Pro
Eheim Ehfimech
Coarse and Fine Filter Pads

My hang on filter just has 4 standard floss/Carbon pads in it.


So what are you guy suggesting I make changes to my filteration?

[dskidmore]

If you want low nitrates, necessary for healthy invertabrate growth, then you need to reduce the total amount of biological filtering you have, and trust the skimmer to remove waste products before they break down. Or step up the water change schedule. (I assume your replacement water has ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings of 0?) Or get a refugium. With a fish only tank though, I don't think you need to be overly concerned about nitrates of 20.

[tecwzrd]

How many fish do you have and what size are they? How long has your tank been set up? How often do you clean your filters? How often do you feed and what do you feed? How often do you perform pwc and what %? Without knowing this it’s hard to say why your no3 won’t drop below 20 ppm. It could be you’re just overstocked, overfeeding, or not cleaning the filters weekly.

I'm slightly overstocked in my 55 gal, have 90 lbs of lr, a sump with skimmer and fuge, and perform 20% pwc each week to keep my no3 undetectable or less then 5 ppm.

I have two bio-wheels on my main hooked up to a mag 350 canister but clean weekly to keep waste from building up which leads to no3 and have a sponge pre-filter on the intake which I clean every other day.

[mnestroy]

Okay, hers my info

Tank has been up almost 2.5months

1. Clown Fish
2. Two Damsels that survived the cycle
3. Tiny Tiny Tiny Blue tang (smaller than my clown fish)
4. 3 Snails
5. 10-12 tiny hermit crabs

I do admit to probaly feeding more than i should, but whatever food I put int he tank the fish eat all of it up within minutes.... I feed Frozen brineshrimp, flakes, and some dried seaweed (which i told the tang woud like, but he doesnt liek it)

Like I mentioned above its a 40 gallon, I do weekly 20% water changes for now, cause I keep adding more live rock (maybe thats the source??)

My protein skimmer doesnt pull to much stuff out of the water, but others have told me thatis normal because i might have clean water.

[dskidmore]

Is the live rock you're adding pre-cured?

Sometimes skimmers have to be tweaked to get peak performance. Check out your manual for the adjusments on your skimmer.

[tecwzrd]

Your bio-load is fine and if your fish are consuming the food within minutes I don’t think you’re overfeeding. Could be your lr hasn’t fully cured and is still adding nh3 to the tank if added within the last week or so. If it’s cured lr or has been in the tank for more then a month then it probably isn’t the cause.

I would replace all media in the Eheim 2026 with lr rubble, use a pre-filter sponge on the intake for the canister and Emperor 400 to keep food waste from being sucked up and rinse those well at least twice a week in old SW.

You have enough lr to do away with the bio-wheels completely in the Emperor 400 and I would also remove any filter media within that and just use to circulate the water. If you do decide to remove the bio-wheels then remove one of them and a month later remove the last one so your lr has time to adjust its bacterial base.

If not cleaned weekly both the canister and Emperor 400 will accumulate enough waste to keep your no3 level high. The bio-wheels are excellent for turning nh3 to no3 but does nothing to convert the no3 to nitrogen like your lr/ls does.

By removing the filter media and adding pre-filter sponges you will greatly reduce any areas for waste to accumulate outside the tank and therefore reduce your no3 levels assuming you are diligent about rinsing the sponges off every couple of days.

[dskidmore]

I completly agree with tecwzrd.

[mnestroy]

So your saying remove all this stuff from my canister filter? then whey even use it?

Ehfisubstrat Pro
Eheim Ehfimech
Coarse and Fine Filter Pads

If its just going to move water then a powerhead would save me a lot of money on electricity.

And what of myhangon filter? If I have no meida in there why bother?