Bioballs removal question

[Connie]

I am in the process of removing the bioballs in my 90g reef tank. I was told to remove one handful a week until they are all gone. I am doing this because I can't get my nitrates below 25. It has been as high as 40! My corals are not going to thrive until I get this number waaaayyyy down. My question is: What do I replace the bioballs with if anything:squigglemouth:?

 

[Hyprviperx]

live rock is what i have heard most people going with

 

[florida reef]

Do you run any media such as carbon, GFO or something like Ecobak? If not I think those would be some possible options. I run Ecobak and my nitrates are always below 5ppm. I'm not saying you have to run ecobak, some of the nicest tanks I've ever seen only use carbon and a skimmer, but in my opinion it does help.

 

[soccerbag]

Good suggestions above. I ran bioballs years ago and they were a nitrate trap for me. What a pain! I'm not a big fan of them personally. I took half of mine out, waited a week, and took the other half out. I started running RowaPhos after that (or you can use any GFO). Much cleaner and nutrients stay in check that way. You can also put more liverock in your system but that would require extra room.

 

[Chompers]

If you have a local reef club, ask for some live rock rubble. Basically, you want to replace the Bio-Balls with their equivalent in live rock. To do that, you need to take advantage of the volume in that chamber the best you can. You want to fill the empty spaces, and to do that, you will want the smallest pieces that you can get. It is best for them to just be plain rock without anything encrusting on them.

 

[Connie]

I run Chemi-pure and Phos-ban in between two blue/white filters and I also use a skimmer. Thanks for the info!