Goodbye Biowheels

I've done 3 water changes in as many weeks. I went out and bought an API nitrate test and found my nitrates are indeed 20 ppm. I have a really old kit that was measuring around 5 ppm. However the new kit confirms the results of the LFS from the other weekend. I also tested my RO/DI water and found the nitrate level is 0 (or darn close to 0). If I can assume that the Coralife salt I'm using is indeed nitrate free then they must be produced within the tank.

I have 3 biowheels running in this tank in addition to all of my live rock. It is likely that these are the source of the nitrate so I'm pulling them out. I'll need to rely on the live rock to perform all of the biological filtration from here on out. If this coupled with more water changes doesn't lower the nitrates I'll have to add a refugium with a deep sand bed and macro algae.