dirty bio-balls = high nitrate?

hello, Ive had my balls for over 10 years and never inspected/cleaned them. well Ive always had a high nitrate levels.. recently nitrate=100ppm, and did a 50% water change and got the nitrates to about 45-50ppm.. my goals is under 15% so I can start adding corals and things.. I just started to pull my balls out to inspect them, and they were very very dirty. I rinsed about 60% of them in tank/salt water and didnt touch the other 40%.. as I didnt want to loose my good bateria.

Was my dirty bio-balls probly my main culpert for my high nitrates if I dont over feed and do 25% monthly water changes?

and how often do you guys wash your balls? ;D

if my nitrates are still high after another week.. I'll probly do another water change and add some AZ-no3 nitrate remover in the tank. PS. I just put two bags of seachem nitrate removal media in my wet/dry.. so I guess time will tell..

 

How do you normally lower your Nitrates? Do you have a coil denitrator or a fuge? The debris on your balls could result in nitrates but only as an additional source or nutrients. The debris would eventually break down into amonnia and result in nitrates.

Nitrates wont lower them selves unless you add something to lower them. Live rock can reduce them but it is really limited in what it can do.

 

I dont have a coil or fuge.
also I just did my first water change in the last 10 months about 1 week ago.. I always hated doing that with my tanks.. I now live on a well water system. so the water isnt the greatest. I'm now ready to start taking care of my tank as Im trying a reef system now and not fish only anymore. I'm guilty of over-stocking in the past. I know I need to watch out for over-feeding,over-stocking,clean filters weekly and do my monthly water changes.. my crush coral bed is also 10+ years old.. So I did vacumm it when I did my water change, and added 10 pounds more of some new crush coral..I now have 1.5-2" of CC throughout. before it was little bare at some spots of the tank. I will try to get some more live rock and stay up on my maintence practices.

 

I used to use city water.. but my whole house/neghborhood is well systems only. I do have a r/o for the kitchen faucet but the filters are old.. and takes forever to fill bucket up.. bath tubs easier.. I do use fresh carbon in my wet/dry so the yellowish well water usally clear the next day.. I'll probly get some (4) 5 gallon buckets to take up to wal-mart/etc they have ro/distilled water machines out front.. thats probly my best route..

 

I also have a little bit of debris at the bottom of my wet/dry unnder my bioballs and around my pump/skimmer floor area. how do I get that stuff out without it going back into the tank and stirring it up? should I just leave it there?

 

Wet dry systems are extremely efficient biological filtration units, at least for ammonia and nitrite stages.
However, as they cannot process nitrates you need something in addition to your wet dry.
Cleaning the bio balls does not change the fact that the bio balls have no anaerobic function.
In my case, wet dry is probably about the only method I've not used over the last 15 years and I've not had a problem as I choose quality live rock that does all stages, plus I use a protein skimmer as the first line of nutrient removal.
Fortunately there are methods out there to take care of the nitrates, like the already mentioned denitrater coil for one.

 

I would "install" the word Bio infront of the balls or just say BB, as that phrase might make some ppl feel uncomfortable. I personaly dont care, but you know how some ppl can be "sensitive".

Anyways, back to the real concern. I wouldnt buy any kind of "band-aid" fix, such as AZ-No3 b/c thats what it will be, a band-aid fix. I tried everything under the sun to no avail. To rid your No3 issue is to find the source. I used to have alot of BB and my No3 never went below 20ppm. I reduced the amount of BB's to 1/4 of what I had before and my No3 went to zero in a matter of days. Of course, I also increased the size of the refugium, but I would like to think it was of the reduction of the BB's that did the trick.

To give you an example how much I cut back on the BB's, here's a before and after pic.


Keep in mind that that is a 29g tank which measures 30w 12d 18h

and heres the new set up





[SCROLL]Luna[/SCROLL]

 

mangroves! Ive read about using them.. funny I just added more BB in my wetdry too.. probly another 30 barrels on top of my existing BB that came with my sealife 60 model. I thought in my head, more the merry'er.. I might have to try to take some out if I dont see any benefit on have that many.

thanks