mwilliams
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Listen to whatever Mr. X says you should check out this tank he has been working on.... The tank at Devon Fitness Club thread.... Very nice tank setup..
you don't want the bio ball set up. it's going to eventually work against you.
Is this because of anything related to the nitrates? I just recently read something on that. I just purchased and successfully set up a wet/dry sump for my 40g breeder that cycled about two weeks ago. It's running fine but the water level in the sump isn’t near high enough for me to insert a heater...I did a lot of research but I'm finding I'm running into a couple small issues. I'll post photos after I get off work, perhaps if the bioballs are not a good thing I could take them out and have the water level high enough in that section to insert a heater. I bought the sump at the LFS, it's basic but it works. Has a compartment with a filter pad, then bioballs, egg crate, going into the second section for the return pump.
Also, I'm still running my power filter. I know there are beneficial bacteria inside the filter media so I didn't want to just remove it. Could I take the filter pad from there and put it near/on the filter pad in the sump? I'm just trying to free some room up to make the display tank not have a bunch of extra stuff in it.
So what should I be buying to start it running then??? overhead? sump? filter? I will really buy a nice light for it coz I really want those nice stuff on my tank to keep them alive and healthy. I saw something on ebay that I posted a link, its pretty cheap and its a combination of little refugium/protein skimmer just not sure if its right for me? here is the link for that HOB refugium/skimmer
Refugium Protein Skimmer Filter Combo Coral Reef 55g - eBay (item 110646412186 end time Mar-09-11 17:29:22 PST)
yes. it's because the bio balls don't finish the job.
i copied this-
I assume you are using some sort of 'wet/dry' system and thats where your bio balls are. Water from your tank is sprayed or trickles over them creating a high oxygen enviroment This creates almost ideal living conditions for certain bacteria that break down amonia/amonium to nitrite. These same conditions are good for another set of bacteria that utilize nitrite and leave nitrate as waste. These 'trickle filters 'are very effecient for this part of the 'nitrogen cycle' . These filters are not however good for the final step in the 'cycle' which is to convert nitrate to nitrogen gas. This requires another set of bacteria that do not thrive in the oxygen rich enviroment of your trickle filter. Thus the water coming from these filters are high in nitrate.
not to mention that bio balls have a lot less surface area than live rock does.
i would remove the bio balls and use live rock in there. do you have live rock in the display? if so, you don't need the bacteria that is on the filter media.