question about bio balls in skimmer

[reefman069]

well everyone says bio balls are bad. well i have bio balls in both of my skimmers. i have a etss 800 and a etss 600. both with bio balls in them. should i take them out or are they okay in the down draft part of the skimmer. any help would be nice. thanks chad

 

[Krish]

IMO, you'll be fine. Bio-balls used in a wet/dry where water is just trickled over them allows waste/detritus to get trapped in it and rott thus degrading water quality etc. In your skimmer, water is forced through those bio-balls practically pressure cleaning them in a sense so not much waste will get trapped in there to cause any issues for you not to mention not very many bio-balls are in those skimmers to talk about anyways compared to how many is kept in a wet/dry. If by chance ntrates are producd by that small amount of bio-balls in your skimmer, your system should easily make quick work of it. Just my 2 cents

 

[cwby416]

I'v never heard of bioballs in a skimmer before...sounds interesting..what is the benifit?

 

[Krish]

Yeah, the ETSS skimmers use them for some reason. Maybe to help make bubbles by breaking up the water flow??? That's all I can think of...

 

[returnofsid]

Well, this helps me figure out what type of skimmer I have sitting on my desk waiting for me to find my camera to take a pic to post...lol. When I recently purchased a 75 tank, stand and misc, it came with a funky skimmer with bio-balls in it. Now I have a starting place to search. Thanks!!!

 

[returnofsid]

Hmmm, just left ETSS website and mine doesn't look anything like those...lol. Wish I could find my camera so I could take and post pics. I wanna set this thing up but have NO idea what it is. Any idea of other skimmers that come with bioballs?

 

[Krish]

Here's what I found on the skimmers using bio-balls...

Downdraft Protein Skimmers
The Down-draft protein skimmer operates by using a high pressure stream of water injected downward into a column of plastic media, like bio balls, to suck air into the water stream and break the air up into tiny bubbles.

Sid...Try googling downdraft skimmers and see what you come up with. I see Octopus makes one as well

 

[returnofsid]

Hmm, I'll give that a try. Just posted a thread about mine with links to pics. Finally found the camera...right where it should be...lol.

 

[Krish]

LOL! I'll check that thread then

 

[returnofsid]

Hmmm, still no luck with either of those searches. Also searched images and can't find anything like it...lol. Okay, enough hijacking this thread. I'll take it to the thread I created.

 

[stonycorals]

Leave the bioballs in the skimmer, unless you don't want your skimmer to skim. A wet/dry and a downdraft skimmer are two different animals. You need a pressure rated pump to run the skimmer. They are some of the best skimmers made.

 

[reefman069]

well thats funny. my etss 800 i had bio balls in the down draft chambers and it was not skimming. i might have had to many bio balls in it. well i took them out and now it skimms like no other. then on the other hand i tried running my etss 600 with no bio balls and it didn't skim. so i put them back in. now working great. so any one with a etss 800. how many bio balls do i need in each down draft chamber. thanks chad

 

[stonycorals]

What pump are you using? Sounds like a pump issue, not a skimmer issue, your 800 should have 22 bio balls in it, do not take any out! You need at least a pressure rated iwaki 40, or Blueline 40. I won't run anything less though than a Blue line 55 on downdrafts of this size.