bio ball question

[cusweatin]

here i go again bothering you guys but i cant help it you guys seem to have some great answers. My question is i have a 75gal thats been running for 2months with 90lbs of cured fiji rock one guy told me since i have so much live rock to pull out my bioballs from my wet/dry.Just wanted some input from you guys to see what you think. Thanks

[kreblak]

It all depends. Did you cycle the tank with the bioballs, but not the live rock? If so, then the bio balls house a LOT of your bacterial bed. With 90 lbs of live rock, you definately have adequate filtration, but removing all of the bioballs at once could cause some unpleasant water conditions.

[BrianH]

Do you have any livestock in the tank? If so, I would remove the bioballs a little at a time. If not, then just remove the bioballs and test your water for about a week to make sure you don't see any spikes.

Brian

[cusweatin]

i cycled the tank with the bioballs and about 35lbs of the rock i have been adding it about 15lbs at a time until now where i reached my 90pound mark.It does have fish in it im just curious if long term is it gonna hurt to have the rock and the bioballs?

[kreblak]

It shouldn't hurt to have both. I'm just not a big fan of bio balls. My personal preferance, you know? ;) Anyway, if you want to get rid of the bio balls, just take them out a few at a time, like BrianH suggested.

[BrianH]

Keeping the bioballs will create more maintenance chores. You will need to make more frequent water changes and rinse off the bioballs in order to keep your nitrates down. If this is going to be a fish only tank, I wouldn't worry about the bioballs too much since fish can handle a higher nitrate level than corals.

Brian

[cusweatin]

im not gonna keep any corals for 6 to 8 months down the road all i have is fish and alot of live rock