need help with removing bio-balls

[Neal358]

i want to take the bioballs out of my reef tank in the next few months. i have a 72 gal tank that is a little over stocked.

1)is it still posible with a tank that is a little over stocked most of the fish are small their are 1)coral beuty 1)clow 2)watchman gobies 2)cardinal and 3)anthias 1) damsile

2)the tank has about 55-60lb of rock in it

3)has only 1 inch of sand (very fine) will add a nother 2inches

4) a good skimmer (euro-reef the small one)

5) vho lighting

if i added about 2-3 inches of sand (my lfs sells fl sand and it dosent cloud the water) and let it run with the dsb for a moth after that should i just take all the balls out or should i do it really slowly. thank for all the help my lfs still thinks that you will end up killing everything with a dsb (still has the best live stock)

 

[Modo]

Do it slowly. Remove a small amount of them at a time so the bacteria colonies have a chance to catch up in the tank.

IMO, I would actually try and go another inch with your addition of sand.

 

[Anonymous]

It might be important to adress the problems you are experiencing. I have not pulled the bio balss and am doing well. If you are I would suggest adding sand to at least 5 - 6 inches and at least 20 more lbs of live rock. The Bio Balls afford you more room to have an increased bioload, of course with the balls you may never see a nitrate reading of zero, but this is not necessary to achieve.

You will need to give your sand bed a few months to become established and I would not pull anything untill you see the massive amounts of nitrogen bubbles escaping when the deep sandbed becomes fully functional. You really need to replace what you are going to remove before hand.

Good Luck

 

[jmeader]

Fishaholic- good advice. All I would add is that as long as the water is filtered before the bio-balls to keep them clean, they will not interfere with achieving zero nitrates. However, taking them out will cut down on your gas exchange. You will likely experience a lower oxygen level and higher co2 level than what you have gotten used to. You can expect that to affect your ph. Also, to my mind, zero nitrates is not desirable. I like having a nitrate level of 1 to 4 ppm.

 

[raptor1]

I replaced my bio-balls with live rock.I would wait a month or two and let your sand bed start to colonize with bacteria and other life.The space where the balls were,I replaced with live rock.All of the rock is under the water line in my sump.I have a 1-inch pvc pipe to the bulk head,to raise the water level 8-9 inches.