biocube 29 filtration question

btuck887 · #1 10-23-2013, 02:09 AM

Have had a biocube up and running for about a year now. Currently have carbon and skimmer in chamber 1, bio balls in chamber 2 and just a sponge in chamber 3. Have been doing a little reading and it seems everyone is going with chemi pure, purigen and floss in chamber 2 and removing the sponge from 3.Any suggestions on if switch over will improve water parameters?!
Also, if I am to switch over should I remove the bio balls slowly, say over a week, or is it just fine to take them all out at once?

Thanks in advance !!

makana · #2 10-23-2013, 02:18 AM

If you have enough live rock you don't need the bio balls. I have read you should remove them slowly so the rest of the system has time to adjust, but I have never had bio balls myself.

Most people are ditching the sponges for filter floss in cubes. You don't "need" chemi-pure or purigen but they don't hurt. Other options are carbon and GFO.

btuck887 · #3 10-23-2013, 02:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makana

If you have enough live rock you don't need the bio balls. I have read you should remove them slowly so the rest of the system has time to adjust, but I have never had bio balls myself.

Most people are ditching the sponges for filter floss in cubes. You don't "need" chemi-pure or purigen but they don't hurt. Other options are carbon and GFO.

I have about 30lbs of live rock, I'm sure that's enough then? I'm just trying to figure out how to keep the tank cleaner. I do weekly water changes of 5 gallons but it always seems to get dirty again after a few days. From reading online it says that the bio balls can just turn into nitrate factory's and effect water parameters.

makana · #4 10-23-2013, 02:38 AM

I have read that about bio balls. They need to be kept free of detritus. The other issue, as I have read, is that the denitrifying bacteria in live rock can't do anything with free floating nitrate. They need to break the nitrate down as soon as its made by other bacteria within the rock. So the bio balls break the nitrite into nitrate and the live rock has no chance of breaking the nitrate down.

I don't have the magic bullet for keeping a cube clean. If I did my build thread would have more recent photos, lol. I'm currently doing 5g w/c one to two times a week. Running a GFO reactor. I now am gravel vacing my sand bed as well. I also reduced the amount of live rock I have to improve flow around it and added locline to the one return to direct flow down the back wall.

btuck887 · #5 10-23-2013, 03:08 AM

I'll start with removing my bio balls. What would u recommend replacing them with? The filter floss, chemi pure and the purigen?

QUOTE=makana;853229]If you have enough live rock you don't need the bio balls. I have read you should remove them slowly so the rest of the system has time to adjust, but I have never had bio balls myself.

Most people are ditching the sponges for filter floss in cubes. You don't "need" chemi-pure or purigen but they don't hurt. Other options are carbon and GFO.[/quote]

makana · #6 10-23-2013, 04:43 AM

I wasn't running anything but floss to remove particles. I'm now running GFO to try and fight algea. What you choose to run depends on what you are trying to fight. What it comes down to is you don't need anything but live rock.

All of the other products you can run are to help fight nutrient build up caused by insuficient maintenance. Basically we fail to remove all the waste and it builds up somewhere and causes issues. So what you run depends on what your issues are. You can also try and fight it with more water changes and cleaning.

You can also look at carbon dosing options. I was considering prodibio. I would rather run no chemical filtration and maintain with water changes alone but it hasn't worked out so far.