Removing existing bioballs

i heard that bioballs are a source of nitrates in a reef aquarium and my nitrates are reading 15 now. but it's most probably because my TREATED water contains 10ppm nitrate, just tested it. damn

i have at least 33 pounds of live rock in a 22 gallon, so i'm guessing that amount would be enough for the bio filtration. Can i remove a quarter of the existing bioballs per week so that i would not cause a mini cycle?

btw, can i use bottled water for water changes and top offs at the moment before i get a RO unit?

 

Whatever the amount of BB you have, divide it into 4 qtrs. Take out one qtr per week or even 2 weeks. Just keep an eye on your No3 levels. 15ppm isnt really high, I had 20ppm for yrs. What water are you using that it contains 10ppm of No3? As for the bottled water, find out if your LFS sells R/O water.



Luna

 

or walmart has one gallon jugs of distilled water for 69 cents

 

The Wal Mart water in my area is RO water. Not RO DI but still better than treated tap water.

 

i am using '' amway water treatment system '' that treats my tap water and makes it drinkable to human beings. it removes tons of contaminants but has no effect of nitrates. Amway - Malaysia Official Site
this is the contaminant list if you're interested. I tested it because i was curious why i still had diatoms after 2 months of cycling my LFS here in malaysia does not sell RO water . So can i just buy big amounts of bottle water since i have a small tank??

 

haha i'll have to fly a few thousand miles to get to walmart, i stay in malaysia ;D

 

Am not sure how it is in Malaysia, but bottled water in the states doesnt get regulated by the government or by anyone. Meaning that any Jack and Jill can "filter" their tap water, bottle it, place a pretty label and sell it for $2.00 a bottle. I dont trust bottled water. If you can find some distilled water, that would be better.

Luna

 

yeah makes sense ., so just to be sure , mixing good ocean salt with disstilled water would provide all the elements required for a happy reef?

 

Be careful using distilled water. Some places use copper tubing in the distilling process which will leach into the water and kill your invertebrates.

 

Also, I would reduce nitrates by changing your water source before going through all the trouble of removing your bio-balls. Personally, I've never had a problem with them so I can't understand why so many people think that they're bad. High nitrates when using bio-balls are usually the result of overfeeding and/or not keeping the bio-balls clean.