Live Rock = Bio Balls???

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Pikachu

Pikachu

Electric Mouse
Joined
Jan 2, 2007
Messages
87
Location
Bellevue, WA
I do not get the true difference between live rock and bio balls, because they both provide surface area for oxidixing bacteria... so can we consider live rock to also be nitrate factories? I definately do not think the other organisms that the rock shelters can provide enough denitrification of nitrate to make live rock any more advantageous.
 
Bio-balls cannot denitrify which is why they are nitrate factories because their end product is nothing but nitrates do to not having any anaerobic zones. However, live rock can perform denitrification do to the anaerobic zones within the live rock where the necessary bacteria grows to perform the function. There is no comparison between the 2. Yes, they both provide surface for bacteria to grow, but only live rock can provide anaerobic zones for denitrification to take place:)
 
Well, I guess most live rock does a pretty poor job at denitrification.
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Why would you say that? The fact that a person has high levels of nitrates in their tank doesn't mean the live rock isn't doing it's job. If you, for eg. overfeed the tank, have more bio-load than the rock can handle by not having sufficient rock to support the bio-load, practice bad husbandry where detritus and waste are allowed to accumilate which in turn can shoot up nitrates very quickly, add water into the tank already high in nitrates (eg. not using ro/di water) using bio-balls in conjuction with live rock in a system where nitrates are accumilated quicker (due to the bio-balls efficiency at performing nitrification in a wet/dry environment) than it can be converted into nitrogen gas by the live rock via denitrification etc, then what would a person expect? It's not miracle rock so you can't expect to do all of the above wrong and expect to read 0 nitrates. There must be balance within a system where the rock is not pushed beyond it's limit for that particular system which means not over stocking, over feeding etc.:).
 
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Actually, the discovery of the usefulness of LR is what has made this hobby accessible to the masses. Using LR and a protein skimmer has become known as "The Berlin Method" because the method was started in Germany.
 
krish75 said:
Why would you say that? The fact that a person has high levels of nitrates in their tank doesn't mean the live rock isn't doing it's job. If you, for eg. overfeed the tank, have more bio-load than the rock can handle by not having sufficient rock to support the bio-load, practice bad husbandry where detritus and waste are allowed to accumilate which in turn can shoot up nitrates very quickly, add water into the tank already high in nitrates (eg. not using ro/di water) using bio-balls in conjuction with live rock in a system where nitrates are accumilated quicker (due to the bio-balls efficiency at performing nitrification in a wet/dry environment) than it can be converted into nitrogen gas by the live rock via denitrification etc, then what would a person expect? It's not miracle rock so you can't expect to do all of the above wrong and expect to read 0 nitrates. There must be balance within a system where the rock is not pushed beyond it's limit for that particular system which means not over stocking, over feeding etc.:).
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Yea, I was trying to get that balance in my tank (before the power outage). Anyways, the weird thing about my previous setup was that I never feed, ever (maybe once by a friend), because I have a single red head pseudochromis. I also have around 120lb of live rock in my 75g tank, around a 30ish times turnover rate in flow, barebottom, a great skimmer (PM Bullet 2, which I clean the injector weekly), I use RODI that reads 0 from my tds meter, and I try to do weekly vacuming of detritus, but it's more like every 1.5 weeks. Anyways, I believe I had too much rock for the size of tank and not enough flow and it seems to me that my rock couldn't keep up with the denitrification of the waste produced by the rock itself. oh well...
 
umm..to much rock is never a problem. not enough flow is. i have 20-25# in a 10g. never enough. my readings are all zero. including nitrate.


this is kinda off topic but why is your name a pokemon?
 
like pokemon came out when i was about 11 and i caught on to it and presonally i think i would of chossen a water pokemon

to make your rock more effective direct current through your rock oppossed to around it would make it more effective and stop deterius build up
 
Yea, I was trying to get that balance in my tank (before the power outage). Anyways, the weird thing about my previous setup was that I never feed, ever (maybe once by a friend), because I have a single red head pseudochromis. I also have around 120lb of live rock in my 75g tank, around a 30ish times turnover rate in flow, barebottom, a great skimmer (PM Bullet 2, which I clean the injector weekly), I use RODI that reads 0 from my tds meter, and I try to do weekly vacuming of detritus, but it's more like every 1.5 weeks. Anyways, I believe I had too much rock for the size of tank and not enough flow and it seems to me that my rock couldn't keep up with the denitrification of the waste produced by the rock itself. oh well...
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Yeah...Sometimes it takes a while for a system to find it's balance. Mine took almost a year to read 0 nitrates and that was with hardly any fish and no corals at all. You can never have too much rock IMO if managed properly, but it can work against you if not managed properly like not having sufficient flow to remove or help remove detritus from the system etc. When your system finds it's balance, you will have just the right amounts of bacteria to support the load whether it is 40lbs in a 75gal or 120lbs in a 75gal. Just a thought:)
 
well unforunately I was out of town in NY when the power went out and lost almost everything. I plan to restart a 50g in the near future.
 
well unforunately I was out of town in NY when the power went out and lost almost everything. I plan to restart a 50g in the near future.
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Sorry to hear about your losses:doubt: Is the 50gal you are thinking about getting an all-glass tank? If so, that's a nice tank! I love the dimensions! Good luck!:)

haha sorry for stealing your thread. but ...


krish: hehe, mines been at zero since mid december. lol mine will prob flux becuase its only a 10g. hahaha
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ROFL!! You can keep 0 nitrates with a small tank so no worries:D
 
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