Bio Balls.....Good or Bad??

[italquam]

My questions is regarding bio balls, I curently have a miralce mud refugium, an Aqua C Urchin Skimmer, my sump is a custom built half wet dry and half refugium. I am wondering if i should remove the bio balls from my system and leave them, some people suggest removing them. I would appreciate any help on this topic. Thanks

 

[Aynesa]

I took my bioballs out of my system and have never looked back. They're nitrate factories. Get rid of them!

 

[villious]

Bio balls are bad.....M'kay?

 

[EnderG60]

propoganda...

bio balls are fine...IF you clean them every so often.

if they didnt work they would not have been in use and STILL be in use on most new sump setups.

Yes live rock and other media's can work better but there is nothing wrong with bio balls.

Even liverock can get gunked up with detritus and become a nitrate factory.

 

[Kenzy]

I took my bioballs out of my system and have never looked back. They're nitrate factories. Get rid of them!

Bio balls are bad.....M'kay?

Talk about bad advice! The OP has a 110g Fish Only. Those bio-balls are doing an excellent job of converting toxic ammonia and nitrite to far less toxic nitrates, which is exactly what they are supposed to do.

Yes in reef tanks with corals nitrates pose problems, but for FO or FOWLR and high bioloads, wet/dry filters with bio-balls do work very well.

 

[italquam]

I have over 100 pounds of live rock, wish zebra snails, a couple conches, hermit crabs, mexican snails and nerite snails, i forgot to mention that in my original post.

 

[villious]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14843704#post14843704 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kenzy
Yes in reef tanks with corals nitrates pose problems, but for FO or FOWLR and high bioloads, wet/dry filters with bio-balls do work very well.

True. I didn't notice the fish only info. I was more or less being funny. Bio balls do a job and do it well. I personally wouldn't want them for a reef tank, but that's just me.

 

[lpsluver]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14843704#post14843704 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kenzy
Talk about bad advice! The OP has a 110g Fish Only. Those bio-balls are doing an excellent job of converting toxic ammonia and nitrite to far less toxic nitrates, which is exactly what they are supposed to do.

Yes in reef tanks with corals nitrates pose problems, but for FO or FOWLR and high bioloads, wet/dry filters with bio-balls do work very well.

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