Help!! Going from W/D sump to a fuge

Tbabcock · Apr 30, 2016

Ok R2R brothers and sisters i have a 3 month old 40gal show tank and i started the system with a eshopps wd100. I know the bio ball thing is bad for nitrates and im sticking at about 9 to 10. I want to build a fuge and im concerned if this will mess up my tank. I have live rock in the sump now under the tray the bio balls sit on and i have a skimmer also. Can you advise what i may run into as far as problems when i make this change. I plan to place the live rock in the fuge with a 2" live sand bed.

Tbabcock · May 1, 2016

So no one has any ideas on this?

I Take Cars · May 1, 2016

When I changed mine, it kicked off a mini cycle... just monitor it. Did a few w/c's and I was good to go.

I Take Cars · May 1, 2016

I converted a wet/dry to a sump

Tbabcock · May 1, 2016

Im replacing mine altogether. I was thinking about taking out the bio balls for now to see if the nitrate will drop until i get the new fuge finished. I was going to add a few more chunks of rock and increase the water level in the old WD just to compensate for removing the bio balls.

I Take Cars · May 1, 2016

Tbabcock said:
Im replacing mine altogether. I was thinking about taking out the bio balls for now to see if the nitrate will drop until i get the new fuge finished. I was going to add a few more chunks of rock and increase the water level in the old WD just to compensate for removing the bio balls.

Maybe put live rock in where the bio balls were? I have to add baffles to mine

Tbabcock · May 1, 2016

Ya the wd100 is not that big so im building one from scratch to take its place. I was more concerned about what effects if any i will have when removing the bio balls from the WD100 until i get the new fuge finished then im going to just move all of my equipment into it and remove the WD100 all together.

I Take Cars · May 1, 2016

Do you ever clean them, the bioballs?

Tbabcock · May 1, 2016

No didn't think you were to clean them because of the bacteria the hold is some of the support for the tank. However im learning there also nitrate factories and im curious to know if that is why i can't get mine below 10.

Tbabcock · May 1, 2016

Everything else is spot on, i have an RODI system, life in the tank is doing well and i do 15% water changes weekly. Just can figure out why the nitrates wont fall off.

I Take Cars · May 1, 2016

Tbabcock said:
Everything else is spot on, i have an RODI system, life in the tank is doing well and i do 15% water changes weekly. Just can figure out why the nitrates wont fall off.

That is probably why... they hold nitrates for sure. I'm no expert by any means, but I think the best way to lower them until your new sump is built. Just take them out and rinse them in a bucket with r/o. Maybe someone else knows a better way?
How old is your rock? Sometimes rock can hold no2 and po4? Not positive though.

Joel B in FL · May 1, 2016

There is a lot of bacteria growing on those bioballs. So when you remove them you want to do so slowly so your tank can have time to compensate. If you just go in and remove all of them at once you will lose a lot of your biological filtration. So make sure you have something else for the bacteria to colonize on and then slowly start removing them and you should be okay. At least that is how it was explained to me when I removed them from my 29 biocube.

Tbabcock · May 1, 2016

Thanks guys for the advice. I think i will take out half now, add more rock in the sump and elevate the water level this week. That way when i do the switch i can just drop the remaining bio balls and be done with them.