I have had a 14 gallon biocube for the past 7 months- it is doing quite well, with some very healthy live rock, plenty of corralline algae- my fish- a yellow goby and a clown seem healthy- a BTA that looks great eating a bay scallop every 3 days, several different soft corals that have erupted from my live rock and spread nicely, some various copepods that come out at night, a few small snails, 1 large snail, an arrow crab, and a cleaning crew of 16 hermits. I change the water - agallon every 4 days- my algae growth is minimal- needs a quick wipe down on glass surfaces every 4 days or so. To be honest I havent been checking my parameters as closely as I used to since the tank appears so stable -I have never been able to get my nitrates totally to zero- they seem to hang out about at 5-10 although this doesnt appear to have hurt my inverts too much- lately I have read that bioballs are a source of nitrate producing bacteria and one local shop suggested that I get rid of them- they came standard with the tank- in addition to my live rock- about 8-9 pounds I have a live mid- size crushed coral substrate-2 inches- and the standard carbon filter that came with the tank which I change every 4 weeks. If my tank is stable on its current set up do I want to monkey around with it, taking the bioballs out? This local guy also suggested switching to a live sand substrate which would be technically difficult- any thoughts ?