bio balls...
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yes, and BECAUSE I SAID SO!!
Sorry, been one of those days- I've heard they can become a nitrate factory after a while, but I'd wait on another opinion..
Sorry, been one of those days- I've heard they can become a nitrate factory after a while, but I'd wait on another opinion..
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yes, because the add to NO3 in the tank. <--- short answer.
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Ok lets see if I can explain this in south american terms... reef tanks and bioballs are like a thong bikini on a tourist gringo man. They just do not mix!
Playing With Bioballs...
Hi, I was recently doing some reading on bio balls. The article said that they produce lots of "good" bacteria and in turn produce lots of nitrates.
I am confused. I always thought that no matter what type of bio filter media was used, that the "good" bacteria only grew in proportion to size of the tank's bio-load. Please explain. Thanks, James
James Hall
Hi, I was recently doing some reading on bio balls. The article said that they produce lots of "good" bacteria and in turn produce lots of nitrates.
I am confused. I always thought that no matter what type of bio filter media was used, that the "good" bacteria only grew in proportion to size of the tank's bio-load. Please explain. Thanks, James
James Hall
Ok, I'm not some know it all whiz when it comes to salts since I am still learning with my new setup BUT, I'll give you the fed back I received and some of it from very good/reliable sources. I think you could ask 20 people and you would get 20 different answers so you kind of have to trust your own judgement as well.
when i first set up, I immediately went to bio balls which after the fact, I was told to stay away from them. since they were already in, I decided to leave them and wait and see what happened next. My NO3's were a bit up but still tolerable...15 to be exact. I went and seeked out help as to why my levels were not going below that number. I was told it was the bio balls. well I wanted everything perfect so I was all set to remove them when someone else told me to leave them and the NO3's would drop in time. Also, it would hurt the biological part of the tank if I removed them all at once. I did my research as well and I started getting more votes as to leaving them than taking them out. the secret is, they must be cleaned at least every three to four weeks and only one half at a time so the balance won't be affected. If not, the NO3's WILL go up and they WILL become harmful. My NO3's did tail off even though not perfectly 0 but still very good.
This is a decision you will have to make based on opinions and fact until you feel comfortable with your own choice.
Whatever all this was worth...sorry to ramble.
when i first set up, I immediately went to bio balls which after the fact, I was told to stay away from them. since they were already in, I decided to leave them and wait and see what happened next. My NO3's were a bit up but still tolerable...15 to be exact. I went and seeked out help as to why my levels were not going below that number. I was told it was the bio balls. well I wanted everything perfect so I was all set to remove them when someone else told me to leave them and the NO3's would drop in time. Also, it would hurt the biological part of the tank if I removed them all at once. I did my research as well and I started getting more votes as to leaving them than taking them out. the secret is, they must be cleaned at least every three to four weeks and only one half at a time so the balance won't be affected. If not, the NO3's WILL go up and they WILL become harmful. My NO3's did tail off even though not perfectly 0 but still very good.
This is a decision you will have to make based on opinions and fact until you feel comfortable with your own choice.
Whatever all this was worth...sorry to ramble.
yes... i was thinking about replace them with live rock, or a macro alge garden. what you think?ares;259232 wrote: its all up to you! I mean, if you like them, use em! personally my sump ahd them, and they got the axe cause I wanted the space they were occupying to fit a skimmercould you put their space to better use?
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IMHO... Live rock and macro is much better..
I am not going to make a long drawn out post about why... I think I let you knopw by the thong! But what is above is very true. Bioballs are not the end of the world. Back in the day, it was the best that we had, so we used them. Times and technology have changed. Now there are better methods for biological and machanical filtration. If you were running a soft coral and LPS tank, I would say that you could get away with using them. They are much more labor intensive. YOu do have to clean them out well and often. So why go though all that if you do not need to. A well balanced fuge will out perform bio-balls in most normal tanks. Also, as you move in to SPS corals, you will find you will have better results without bio-balls.
I am not going to make a long drawn out post about why... I think I let you knopw by the thong!
But what is above is very true. Bioballs are not the end of the world. Back in the day, it was the best that we had, so we used them. Times and technology have changed. Now there are better methods for biological and machanical filtration. If you were running a soft coral and LPS tank, I would say that you could get away with using them. They are much more labor intensive. YOu do have to clean them out well and often. So why go though all that if you do not need to. A well balanced fuge will out perform bio-balls in most normal tanks. Also, as you move in to SPS corals, you will find you will have better results without bio-balls.- Messages
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Get rid of them and replace them with live rock rubble. I did over a year ago and went from doing a water change every 2-3 weeks to every other month. DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As everyone has said as long as you have enough Live rock to perform the job that the bioballs used to do you dont need them. When I setup my first tank I had bioballs and honestly I think they helped during the cycle. That said once that had finished what I did was pull a handful every water change. I have maybe 10 left in my cube atm. My Nitrates have been zero now for while. So my advice is yes remove them but do it in phases during your weekly water changes or however often you do them.
Don't mean to disturb the thread here , but I have a similar question. Would the same be true HOB filters and the bio media in there. I have been told to take them out and leave them in. Tha filter manufacturer says replace every 3 months. I have done this as directed and have never had a 0 nitrate reading.
The current thinking in reef keeping is that biological filtering is handled by the live rock. This is why most people will advise you to ditch most other forms of biological filtration.
When you have other media hosting colonies of bacteria this can lead to an unbalancing of the biological load. The thing that seems to go out of balance most often is Nitrates. This is due to the bacteria that consume nitrates not generally being present in sufficient numbers in your bio-media to be effective.
In fact what generally happens with bio-balls and other bio-media in your HOB's or whatever is because of where they are in your setup all they end up doing is dumping nitrates back into the tank.
So my two cents is overtime remove other bio-media apart from your live rock.
Hope that helps
Mark
When you have other media hosting colonies of bacteria this can lead to an unbalancing of the biological load. The thing that seems to go out of balance most often is Nitrates. This is due to the bacteria that consume nitrates not generally being present in sufficient numbers in your bio-media to be effective.
In fact what generally happens with bio-balls and other bio-media in your HOB's or whatever is because of where they are in your setup all they end up doing is dumping nitrates back into the tank.
So my two cents is overtime remove other bio-media apart from your live rock.
Hope that helps
Mark
well first of how big is your tank as you want to ensure you have enough live rock to handle the biological load?
Tons have been written about how best to setup a tank for natural biological filtering. You tend to find two school of thoughts people that run live rock and a deep sand bed and those that run live rock and a bare bottom setup.
Depending on how your setup if you go the deep sand route you either have this in your tank or you add a refuguim and place your deep sand bed in that.
I can't speak to bare bottom as I have never done that but I am sure we have quiet a few members with that setup from looking at the tank pics.
With regard to your media in the filter I would slowly start removing it with each water change and just keep an eye on the readings. If your keeping just soft coral low nitrates are not that bad anyway, in fact when I added my first coral which was a zoo a lot of reference books pointed out that zoo's grown best with some nitrate present.
Hope that helps.
Mark
Tons have been written about how best to setup a tank for natural biological filtering. You tend to find two school of thoughts people that run live rock and a deep sand bed and those that run live rock and a bare bottom setup.
Depending on how your setup if you go the deep sand route you either have this in your tank or you add a refuguim and place your deep sand bed in that.
I can't speak to bare bottom as I have never done that but I am sure we have quiet a few members with that setup from looking at the tank pics.
With regard to your media in the filter I would slowly start removing it with each water change and just keep an eye on the readings. If your keeping just soft coral low nitrates are not that bad anyway, in fact when I added my first coral which was a zoo a lot of reference books pointed out that zoo's grown best with some nitrate present.
Hope that helps.
Mark
