Emperor 400 question

[M-pire]

I have two of the emperor 400s running on my 72g. I'm not sure of how much LR I have, but I would guess it is above 100lbs. I have one huge hermit crab and a few small ones that the big one eventually catches. I also have two emerald crabs that are crawling around.

Even though I dont have a large clean up crew would it still be in my best interest to remove the filter pads?

Should I also remove the bio wheels?

 

[Riptide]

I wouldn't remove the pads.

There is some controversey regarding the bio-wheels. Most will tell you to remove them, a few will say they've never had any problems.

I've seen a PDF by marineland where an experiment was run showing that they aren't "nitrate factories" like some say they are. Someone (Corax) pointed out that marineland makes bio-wheels so they might be biased. This is true, but the experiment seemed sound to me.

That said, I keep the bio-wheels out of the picture just to be safe.

 

[M-pire]

I would have figured the pads to be the "nitrate factories" since the pads will suck up and hold and debris in the water. Once in the pads the critters couldnt eat it and it would decay.

How would the bio wheels create nitrates?

So are you saying to keep the bio wheels?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Riptide]

Well, I wouldn't leave the pads in there indefinitely. I'd put new ones in there each month. After a month or so the carbon contained in the pads can start to leach stuff back into the water. Plus, the buildup of particulate matter stuck on the pads just adds to the bio-load. These are good reasons to keep fresh pads in there - clean ones at that.

The bio-wheels supposedly become nitrate factories because by their very nature they are hosts to huge colonies of bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate. The idea most people espouse is to let the live rock and DSB handle all of that instead. There is some controversey regarding this but I decided to pull the bio-wheels "just in case". The bio-wheels will also build up a nice salt accumulation on there that can be a pain to keep clean.

Dump the bio-wheels, keep the pads, and replace the pads on a regular basis.

 

[M-pire]

I'll be pulling the bio wheels tonight!

Two more questions:

1- Does the carbon absorb nitrates?

2- Do the phosphate filters, and does carbon absorb chemicals continuously? or if the chemicals are abundant do they fill up quickly then quit absorbing/leach stuff back?

Thanks again for the help!

 

[Riptide]

Activated carbon does not absorb nitrate or phosphate.

If the dissolved organics in the water are abundant then the carbon will need to be replaced sooner or it will also begin to leach back into the tank water that much quicker.

I would not rely heavily on activated carbon or odds are you have some problem you are band-aiding and not truly fixing. IOW, if you have so much dissolved organic material in your water that the carbon is losing it's effectiveness in a hurry odds are you need to do a water change.

While a direct comparison between freshwater and saltwater can't necessarily be made here (I am new to marine tanks) I can tell you that I use no chemical filtration whatsoever with my african cichlid aquarium (125g). I rely totally on mechanical and biological filtration coupled with heavy water changes (50% every 7-10 days). The fish are thriving.

If marineland sold replacement pads that had NO carbon in them I would glady buy them up. Carbon isn't bad... I just don't feel it should be a necessity.

Anyone else care to comment?