I feel a little dumb. About a month ago I bought a 72 gallon bowfront tank that was already set up, complete with livestock. I made no changes to it except for getting rid of a few fish and adding the fish and liverock from my 30 gallon tank. Everything has been going well except recently I've noticed an increase in Nitrates (I tested around 10 on Thursday). So after approximately 30 seconds of online research I figured out that the rise in nitrates were likely due to the fact that I have a trickle filter complete with bioballs. It seems that hardly anyone is using bioballs these days because while they are great at colonizing the bacteria that break down ammonia and nitrites, they don't do anything to help the nitrate level because that bacteria is anerobic. The result is that your nitrates usually continue to rise, despite water changes. So I'm in the process of removing approximately 20% of the bioballs each week, and once all the bioballs are removed I'll convert the trickle filter into a true sump.
My question is am I correct in my findings on bioballs and am I going about this conversion in the correct way?
I'd also like to add a couple more questions:
-At what point do you know it's time to change a Poly filter? Does anyone use them continuously or only in emergencys or when water parameters get bad?
-I'm currently running carbon continously under direct flow. How often should I be replacing the carbon (about 6 oz.)? Tricky question, I know. I have a tomato clown, a percula clown, a bicolor angel, a potter's angel, a psuedocromis, and a yellow watchman goby. Also a couple anemones and a few softies. I only feed once per day and not that much imo.
Thanks in advance for any advice and/or opinions!
My question is am I correct in my findings on bioballs and am I going about this conversion in the correct way?
I'd also like to add a couple more questions:
-At what point do you know it's time to change a Poly filter? Does anyone use them continuously or only in emergencys or when water parameters get bad?
-I'm currently running carbon continously under direct flow. How often should I be replacing the carbon (about 6 oz.)? Tricky question, I know. I have a tomato clown, a percula clown, a bicolor angel, a potter's angel, a psuedocromis, and a yellow watchman goby. Also a couple anemones and a few softies. I only feed once per day and not that much imo.
Thanks in advance for any advice and/or opinions!