Replacing Bio Wheel with Live Rock

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Squado

Aquarium Advice Freak
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I have read a couple of threads where people mention replacing their bio wheel with lir rubble from the aquarium. Is this a good idea. I heard that bio wheels tend to produce a lot of nitrate, and I am currently having some nitrate problems. My nitrates are currently sitting at about 20 ppm, is this reasonable or what is the max nitrates can sit with fish, inverts, and corals? I did a 20% water change yesterday with R/o water and the nitrate levels did not move at all. I aerated the water for about 8 hours and placed in the aquarium over the course of about an hour. Anyway, would replacing the bio wheel with lr rubble help keep nitrate levels down. I am about to do another water change right now (20%) and was wondering if I should swap them out as well. TIA.....
 
20ppm is about the max you'd want so I understand. I don't know anything about biowheel filtration, but I'm thinkning you'll be better off with an HOB skimmer and the LR you currently have in your main.
 
I think you might be close to where you want to be on the LR, maybe about 5 more LBS, and you could probably replace that bio wheel with some LR rubble. I would have some water on hand, in case you need a PWC. I was advised, check you water about 5 hours after you remove the bio wheel to see if you get any spikes. Some one might be able to give you a little better numbers....
 
Thanks for the info. I just replaced the bio wheel with lr rubble and did a 20% water change. Ill check the numbers in five hours like you said and see if any levels go up. Thanks once again and ill post some numbers a little later.
 
Definitely let me know. I am going to remove two of my 4 sponges on my 304 this weekend.
 
OK, its been four hours and I just tested my water. There were no ammonia or nitrite spikes, but my nitrates are still sitting at 20 ppm. Is there something that I am doing wrong? I can not get my nitrates to lower. I did a total of a 35% water change in the past two days, 5 gallons yesterday and 5 gallons today (29 gallon tank). I even added Amquel plus (which is supposed to remove ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates) last night and my nitrates will not lower (prior to removing the bio wheel. I also cleaned up a bunch of brown matter along the bio wheel placement and the powerheads which run off the bio wheel and no change. Is there anything else I can do to get rid if my nitrate problem? TIA
 
Did you test the water before you added it?

See if that is the source of your NO3 problems.

Also, I have found NO3 the hardest of all to tests to read. The easiest for me to read and use the is the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals kit.

Do you have anything dead in there, like a snail or a crab?
 
I tested the water before I added it to the tank and it did not contain any nitrates. I went back last night and did a thorough cleanig of all the mechanical equiptment, skimmer, filter, filter bed, etc. There seemed to be a lot of brown matter all over everything. I just checked my water parameters this morning (day after) and found that even with replacing the bio wheel with lr rubble my ammonia stayed at 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate did not move. The only thing that may be causing it it terms of death are that I havent seem my cleaner shrimp for a couple of weeks (water was fine the whole time) and I havent seem my mythrax since I last moved my rock work around (two days ago). Ill just have to keep on checking and posting some numbers without the bio wheel
 
I currently have been feeding the fish a frozen prepared marine cuisine for carnivores and flake food. I feed them probably every two to three days (couple times a day in small quantities) and have sea weed always present in the water on a clip. Do you think it could be the sea weed, my nitrate problems really didnt start until I added it. I thought that sea weed did not foul up water quality, but I cant think of anything else. I also have noticed that Red slime algae or cyanobacteria is currently starting to grow on the rocks and substrate. Is this related to the nitrate issues and why is it growing. My lighting cycle is about 8.5 hours a day.
 
Sponges and bio wheels can become nitrate factories if not cleaned on a regular basis. Plus dead algae on a clip will produce nitrate. I would not leave this in the water.

How did you replace the bio wheel with lr. Bio wheels are driven by water current or spray heads.

The reason for putting lr in a canister or overflow filter is to provide a place for beneficial bacteria to grow.

There are other ways to reduce nitrates like dsb and refugiums, also lr which you already have.
Hopefully this will help,
I was in the same boat that you are in once, could not get my nitrates below 20. So i updated my equipment put in a 4 to 5 inch dsb, added a refugium with macro algae, and installed a remora pro protein skimmer.
Now my nitrates are 0 to 5.
that just my 2 cents.
 
I'd stop w/the 24/7 algea clip. It, like any other food will decay. Not that it may be long enuf to do that, but you still got food constantly in the water which isn't good IMO.
 
I agree about the seaweed, I would just leave it a few hrs then remove it. Also it will probably take some time after removing the bio wheels for things to change. And how big is that Angel? A tank may get high nitrates if the bio load is too large.
JMO and I'm no expert
 
Ok, I took the algae out and will be putting it inthe water everyother day probably. As for the bio wheel, I think im just gonna clean it and put it back by the pumps. The angel is still a juvenille and is really on about two inches. Theres only three fish in the tank, and the other two are quite small. I havent had any problems with the three fish in the tank for about two months. I think im gonna wind up adding some more lr also, I know I could use a little bit more. The weird thing is that I used two different test kits for my tank nitrate levels and they both show 20, but when it was tested at the lfs he told me it was at zero, quite odd. Ill put the bio wheel back in and post what the water parameters are later tonight. Oh by the way, would it be bad if I put the lr rubble on top of my filter pad along with the bio wheel? Thanks alot........
 
I was thinking about totally and permanatley removing my bio filter pad out of my Skilter 250, and fill the remaining space with LR rubble......

Good idea?

I am also locked in a war with nitrates!

I have narrowed it down to the filter pad being my only source possible...I have no fish stock, only 2 anemones and a feather duster.

I have only been hesitant to remove it because I am not sure if it is still performing biological filtration, or hindering it. I dont want a spike either.
 
I am doing the same thing. I am conducting an experiment. I have a fluvial 304 with 4 sponges. This past weekend, I removed 2 of the sponges and my phosphates went from 1 to .05 in 5 hours. I will do a PWC tonight and take more readings. I was advised it can take 4-5 days for the tank to level out. This weekend I'll remove the other two sponges and get som results and post my whol "diary" with pics....
 
I don't get it...

People talk about nitrates as if its coming from the filter pads/sponges.

Its a direct result of the amonnia - nitrite - nitrate conversion.

AFAIK, the only way to eliminte it is berlin filtration with 1-2 pounds of LR per gallon, lots of macroalgae in a fuge, or lots of PWC.

Unless something is consuming nitrate, its going to be present, and not just "go away" when you remove filter media, and as the end product of the ammonia/nitrite remove, its going to continue building, non-stop.

Right?
 
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