ricwilli said:youpey said:i wouldnt remove them all at once. i would do maybe 15% to 25% per week. they do their job with holding the good bacteria. if you remove it all at once, you may get a small spike causing a small cycle. to me it isnt worth the risk.
If you can afford it, the intank media rack is the best investment i made on the tank. (or you could build one if your handy)
http://shop.mediabaskets.com/BioCube-14-Media-Basket-BC14MR.htm
I bought this and replaced the cheapo media it came with. In my media basket i have filter floss, carbon, chemipure elite, and purigen. What i have is overkill with the different media, but my tank water is always crystal clear. I change the filter floss out 1 time per week, but i could probably wait 2 weeks.
It is a slightly large investment in buying the rack and some of the media, but it is cheaper then repacing the stock media a lot(although realistically you probably just need filter floss, chemipure or purigen, and some people put in chaeto in the middle with a light)
What spike and cycle? He only has ONE fish in there. The rocks alone would take care of that fish. Plus the sand and the skimmer. He could do it before he does his next water change.
At the moment I have 1 clown, about 8 snails and 2 hermits (although i'm not sure where the hell they are in the tank )
Today I'm going to my LFS and picking up a bag of carbon and going to remove enough of the bioballs initially to place the carbon in there, then when i do my next water change ill remove the rest of the balls.
The media rack is tempting but not sure how I would set that up