Hi Phil,

The water remains crystal clear as long as I keep my hands out of the tank. The
oils on my skin affect water tension, as does a water change or new top off
water, as does feeding the tank.

The stuff that blows around in the tank ends up being food for something, so I
have no reason to trap and remove it. All that is in there I put there,
including daily food. The clean up crew, the microfauna and the livestock help
eat up what is edible (on some level).

During a water change and/or siphoning of the gravel, the water will get dirty,
but it clears up within an hour or two. If you have corals, that is typically
the time they'll feed on the floating detritus. Some guys on ReefCentral.com
even intentionally blow all the stuff that landed in the sump, getting it back
into the water so their livestock can have another chance and consuming it. The
skimmer will pull out what is in the water as well.

The biological filter can only deal with a specific amount of pollutants, and
once they get too high LR & LS can't keep up. By getting those levels down,
success is attainable.

I did convert a trickle filter into a sump, and used it for about 6 weeks until
I built a brand new sump that had room and volume. It makes caring for my 55g a
real breeze.

LR doesn't depend on lighting, that I'm aware of. I do believe a DSB does,
because I've seen bubbles formed on the substrate during the day time (nitrates
coverted to nitrogen gas bubbles) which rise and pop. I've never noticed this
occuring during lights out.

You can make the conversion slowly. As soon as you have the sump and refugium
in place, that would be the perfect time to pull out the biowheels. You can put
additional LR in the sump if you don't want it in the display tank.

Marc


Phil wrote:

Marc,

So how do you maintain crystal clear water with no mechanical filtration?
During vaccuming and water changes, lots of particulates get kicked up,
and I cringe until my mechanical filter clears the water again.

What confuses me is, yes, biowheels create nitrates 24/7, but so does any
biological filter, no? Thats what its there for. And you need that. Or is
the issue that live rock performs more efficiently as a biofilter, and
produces fewer nitrates? Or are you saying biowheels sustain nitrate
production even when the cycle is not being fed with DOCs, whereas
liverock wont.

I like how you've converted a trickle filter into a sump. Actually, you
have me thinking very seriously about installing a sump/refugium, and
employing DSB and macroalgae for denitrification. I'm very nervous about
yanking my biowheels, since thats my established biofilter. I may
consider slowly ramping up the liverock until thats active, and then
axing the biowheels. Do I need strong lighting to use liverock as my
primary biofilter? I have only 30w now.

In anycase, that will be a slow migration. Meantime, I think I'd like to
take on a sump and get denitrification happening.

Thanks,
Phil

Marc Levenson wrote in
:

Biowheels create nitrates 24 hours a day. Dirty filter pads do as
well. Plan on rinsing them well every 3 or 4 days if you want to stay
with that system.

My 29g doesn't have any type of filter pad, wheel, sock .. nothing.
The water is crystal clear and people are surprised by this.
Particulates trapped in any type of pad will rot as they break down
and nitrates have nowhere to go but up.

http://www.melevsreef.com/reducing_nitrates.html

Marc




--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com