Cleaning up neglected refugium

[bussea02]

Hey everyone, I have a 90g display and 90g refugium that was set up about 6 years ago. The main display has been doing pretty well but I'm hoping to improve my water parameters so I can start buying some more difficult corals with confidence. My nitrates run around 20ppm and my goal is to take care of that.

I do weekly ~10% water changes, siphoning out what i can, clean out protein skimmer and pumps.
Run at 78º
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20ppm (roughly)
Alk - 10 dkh


Here is what i'm working with

http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af201/bussea02/9.jpg
http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af201/bussea02/2-1.jpg
http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af201/bussea02/3.jpg

The water comes down into some filter media and activated carbon that i change regularly. The skimmer pump is below the bioballs in the darkened chamber.

The live rock in here is full of sediment that I'm trying to remove. Would the easiest way be to take a few out and just shake them vigorously in a 5g bucket? I'm trying to avoid stirring up too much junk while doing it.

Any suggestions on how i could improve things would be appreciated. I'm curious about the usefulness of the bioballs here and if adding a DSB would be a good idea.



Here is a bad picture of the main tank (2 14k 175W MH)
http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af201/bussea02/6.jpg

There's not too much algae growth and everything is healthy

-Copperband butterfly
-3 Pajama Cardinals
-Bluehead Wrasse
-2 Tomato Clowns
-18" Sebae Anenome, Leathers, Frogspawns, Acan, Zoos, Mushrooms

[Jarret]

Most people would say to remove the bioballs while some will say to keep them. Typically they are nitrate factories and a DSB would be a lot more beneficial.

A turkey baster should work pretty well for getting the sediment off the rocks. :)

[platax88]

IMO I would remove the refugium all together and get a better skimmer. Also remove the bioballs.

[bussea02]

I think the skimmer is over 6 years old and probably wasn't a great one at the time either. There's very rarely any ammount of skimmates in the cup and i've never been sure if the filters/carbon catch all the proteins or the skimmer itself just isnt so good.

Another thought... a lot of the smaller refugiums i see have either no sand or a lot of sand. Could removing my ~1" sand bed be better than keeping it as is?