Bioballs or not?

[jesseman]

We are on our second reef tank, had the first one for about a year, moved and now, after a couple of years have another. New reef tank, a 105 gallon tall with a 25 gallon sump, has been running for about seven months now. First time around we used bioballs as recommended by the seller. We used them again this time and we are having some trouble maintaining hardness, addition of buffer will raise it to about 11 german units and in the course of a few days it falls again to around 7 units.

We have had recommendations that removing the bioballs and turning the sump into a refugium might help to stabilize the system.

Before I remove them, thought I would poll the group to see what has been seen and what your recommendations might be.

Thanks for your help.

 

[fatboyt123]

yes pull them out and set up the fuge with some macroalgaes

 

[JPG@CFI]

Only remove a little of the bio balls at a time. Don't want to change things too fast. Add some live rock a little at a time, while you are removing the bio balls. J

 

[ajnweb]

Howdy neighbor! You should get some good advice/responses on this forum.

 

[returnofsid]

I don't know that having bioballs or not will effect Alkalinity. I would recommend removing the bioballs, as they'll become nitrate traps. I don't know that this will have any effect in Alk though. What type of substrate do you have? Typically, Aragonite based sand will act as a buffer for your Alk. As pH drops, the aragonite sand will dissolve, raising pH. I just don't see any correlation between pH, Alk and the presence or absence of bio-balls. The only thing I could think of, is if you're bio-balls are accumulating detritus, as that detritus is decomposing, it'll cause a drop in pH.

 

[beoks]

i dont understand this everyone says replace bio balls with live rock, wont live rock still build up dentrites to so you end up with the same problem??

 

[pufferdady]

I'm no expert but I agree w/ Sid I can't see how Bio balls would affect your Alk. As far as replacing with live rock, I'm guessing if it's a "Reef" tank you already have live rock in the tank and depending on how much bioload(fish ect), you shouldn't need the bioballs. The live rock should do the job of converting the ammonia into nitrate. From everthing I've been told and experienced the bioballs are just another place to accumulate detritus, as Sid said. That being said, don't go and pull all your bioballs out untill you're sure you have enough cured liverock in the tank and then I would do it slowly. Maybe remove 25% of the balls per week. I had a Backpack skimmer with biobale in it and I couldn't believe how much detritus collected in it. As I said, I'm by no means an expert, just my 2 cents

 

[returnofsid]

beoks, it's all about aerobic, vs. anaerobic bacteria. Bio-Balls (or live rock rubble used as Bio-Balls) work in a very oxygenated environment. This is great for breaking down ammonia, but also great for building up nitrates. What we want in our reef systems is for our denitrification process to take place in a low-oxygen area, which is our sand bed.

I wouldn't recommend replacing bio-balls with live rock rubble. Doing so, and still having a well oxygenated area with rubble rock in it, is no different than having the bio-balls to begin with. A Deep Sand Bed, in the refugium, a Shallow Sand Bed, or even no sand bed in the display, an adequate quantity of live rock in the display, great flow and good skimming are all that's needed for natural filtration and denitrification.

 

[DonW]

The biological activity alone will consume alk. I agree remove the bioballs and no lr to collect detritus and become a nitrate factory just like the bioballs.

Don

 

[returnofsid]

Don, so to see if I understand this better... The biological activity, which Bio-Balls are really good at, actually consumes your Alk? I know that bioballs are very good at what they're meant to do, but are also great for building up nitrates. I had no idea that their biological filtration actually resulted in the lowering of Alk. I also knew that any decomposition can drastically lower pH, is this a bi-product of the consumption of Alk, or vice-versa?

 

[jesseman]

Hi folks, thank you so much for all of the input. We will be removing the bioball... slowly as JPG and Pufferdaddy recommend. After that we will put in a good sized sand bed. We already have macroalgae and lighting for the sump. We are also looking into a new skimmer.

To continue Sid's point, as I understand activity in the reef, our corals will consume calcium and carbonate, reducing both the calcium concentration and the measured alkalinity. Since we have been separately adding both calcium and a buffer, we are running into the low hardness problem.

I have read that there are three possible solutions, first, use a coordinates set of additives, second, add kalkwasser, or third, use a calcium reactor.

We are planning to try the first alternative, since at least in the short run it is less expensive. Have I come to the right conclusion?

Thanks for your help.