Bio Balls??????

[bottom feeder]

Hello all just wondering if anyone had any input on bio balls,<aka nitrate farms>.Ive got them in my sump now tank has been up 2.5 months and has gone through its cycle.Just wondering if i should remove them now that im cycled,also would porus rock be benifical ?In other words what is the best materal to use in a sump of a 75 gal reef setup.water test are all good

 

[LakeEd]

In general, the bio-balls aren't the best thing, because their final output is nitrate.

However, before we could recommend that you remove them, we would really need a little more information about your current system.

How much live rock is in your display tank?
What are your test levels?

Personally, the best thing to put in your sump (no matter what size tank it is), is heater & test probes. Nadda else!

 

[mmkeeper]

What are your water parameters?

 

[Pikachu]

removing the bioballs now will take out alot of the good bacteria that we want, ur tank might go thru another minicycle.... depending on how ur tank is stocked, it may/maynot be safe to take them out

 

[hooked82]

I would definately take them out, but not all at once. Slowly take them out a little at a time to let the bacteria "repopulate", though you will want to make sure you've got enough Live Rock.. Good luck with it!

 

[Haole]

I agree with Ed... No live rock in the sump. Just gadgets and a good protein skimmer.
The jury’s still out on what to do with your bio balls at this point...

 

[Scooterman]

If you have enough LR for your tank the bio-balls should all come out, yank them, clean the holding area, remove any detritus traps in the sump, then do a WC & be done with the problem. The only case you would need to slowly remove the balls is if you had little LR & heavy Bio-load & a small tank, to be saft yank about a 1/4 at a time about every day or two.

 

[Krish]

I agree with the others for the most part. Bio-balls are nitrate factories so I'd remove them slowly given you have sufficient rock to take over and handle the biological and denitrification responsibilties your tank requires. As for the sump, if you put live rock down there, then you will just have added maintenance as the rock will shed and you don't want that settling in there degrading water quality which is why people typically recommend leaving all of the live rock in your main display. Just a thought...

 

[bottom feeder]

My set up is a 75gal,15gal sump,protein skimmer,diy phosban reactor,diy denitrater,14 mangroves ,260 watt comp.fluoresent lights,Ive got about 100pds of base rock in tank which i seeded the tank with coraline about a month ago<Im getting some nice growth on the rocks now>I also have roughly 10pds of rock rubble live rock throughout. As far as my water my test are all good 0 annonia,0nitrites,0nitrates,calcium is good,Ph 8.1 everything seems good and i definitly wanna keep it that way. Thanks for all the help

 

[cwby416]

I would still remove the balls, its only a matter of time before they start giving you hassle. Your denitrater might be helping now, but they will start getting worseas your tank matures...

 

[Scooterman]

I would still remove the balls, its only a matter of time before they start giving you hassle. Your denitrater might be helping now, but they will start getting worseas your tank matures...

Couldn't say it better, long term your better off, BTW what is actually your denitrater?

 

[LakeEd]

With your system setup, I would also remove all of the Bio-Balls from your sump. If you are at all worried, nothing says you need to remove them all at once. Remove 1/4, test in about 2 days, if all tests good remove another 1/4, and wait another 2 days. In the long run, you'll be happy you removed them!

 

[bottom feeder]

thanks for all the help,I just did a waterchange and took out some bio balls,would it still be worth while to put some filter media in its place and clean them daily? Scooterman I made a coil denitrater 3in pvc,2 end caps,1 valve to restrict water flow to a drip a sec.,30ft 1/4tubing,

 

[Haole]

IMO, you can do that and if you religiously changed the filter material out on a daily basis that would be great. Don’t let it go more than two or three day’s though. The reason behind this is taking into consideration that yes, these mechanical filters are collecting particulates, but in the same breath, your systems water is constantly flowing over this collected debris and breaking it down and in turn re-introducing it back into the water column.

 

[Krish]

I agree with Rob...Also, the fact that you will be putting something in the same location the bio-balls were in (in a wet/dry environment not submerged) if left without cleaning/changing every few days (3 at the most I'd go with), it will work the same way as the bio-balls did. Anything used in a wet/dry application works the same way as bio-balls. Bio-balls are just simply used because of the amount of surface area they provide for nitrifying bacteria to grow, but essentially, anything works the same way (nitrate factory) if placed in a wwet/dry environment.

 

[bottom feeder]

thanks to all,