I have had my 55gal tank for two years now and was wandering if I sould do away with the bioballs in my wet/dry filter. I hear and read different opinions on the subject. I currently have 4 small fish with a few mushrooms and am looking to add more coral. I dont want to get rid of my fish, but do want to make the new coral happy. I will have to redo my lighting along with many other things, but for starters what would be the best way to use my Amiracle wet/dry filter and why.
Bio balls or no bio balls
- Thread starter b_s_c1
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gooyferret
New member
You can take them out as long as you have enough LR in the tank, but do NOT take them all out at once since they have bacteria on there converting ammonia take a little out at a time, otherwise you may spike the ammonia levels in your tank....HTH
This is were I get confussed. If bio balls are that bad why do they need to be taken out slowly. When I blow my lr off a bunch of debris always comes off. When I clean my bio balls I dont see much waste. If taking the bio balls out can spike the ammonia levels does this mean they are doing a good job?
I am going to take most if not all the balls out, I am just trying to figure out why this is the best move.
I am going to take most if not all the balls out, I am just trying to figure out why this is the best move.
waynem
New member
Bio balls do a great job, its just they don't complete the cycle. Which is why they need to come out slowly.
Keep the balls instead of trying to over fill your tank with rock.
To keep your nitrates down you have to employ another method.
Take a look at nitrate fitters, its not the common do like everyone answer but you will find it works and better then most people realise.
Keep the balls instead of trying to over fill your tank with rock.
To keep your nitrates down you have to employ another method.
Take a look at nitrate fitters, its not the common do like everyone answer but you will find it works and better then most people realise.
ConsultantERP
New member
People tend to call bio balls a "Nitrate factory', and they are. So is live rock (thats what they do, turn ammonia to nitrates and nitrites to nitrates). The issue is that bio balls can get waste hung up within them, and cause a constant source of Nitrates. If you use bio balls it may be best to have a filter sock to catch the waste before it gets all over the bio balls. Of course then you must change and clean the filter sock (or whatever you use) to export the nutirents before they leach into the water.
I think the reason everyone wants you to remove the bio balls slowly is that you will need the bacteria to populate somewhere else as you remove them, and it may take a few days for that to happen. Also during the replacement, make sure you are adding something that already has the benificial bacteria (cycled) or you may have a small cycling in the tank.
I think the reason everyone wants you to remove the bio balls slowly is that you will need the bacteria to populate somewhere else as you remove them, and it may take a few days for that to happen. Also during the replacement, make sure you are adding something that already has the benificial bacteria (cycled) or you may have a small cycling in the tank.
Superstretch18
New member
The reason that tanks with bioballs typically have higher levels of nitrates is that bioballs have no anerobic areas to compeletely process nitrates down to nitrogen. Live rock does, so less nitrates built up...
Correct. You have an established bacteria population on your live rock that is performing some percentage of the biological filtration in the system. If you remove that, you are leaving a gap until the bacteria can remultiply on the rock & substrate.
Yes, but it's counter productive. A reef tank will stay cleaner without the bioballs. The tank will never be as clean with bioballs as without. You will need to resort to more frequent water changes and that still won't be as effective as removing the bioball.
The reason that fish only tanks do better with bioballs is that they are really efficient at processing out ammonia and nitrite, at the cost of higher nitrate levels, which aren't a problem for fish. For a reef tank, the less nitrate, the better.
Uncle Salty 05
New member
Yes, that is the way everybody did it for several years.
Just in the last few years it was discovered that anaerobic bacteria (low oxygen) could convert nitrates to harmless nitrous oxide (sp.)
Bio balls are in an oxyen rich environment and become covered with aerobic bacteria which do a great job of converting ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate but that is all bio balls can do for you.
Anaerobic (low oxygen) and anoxic (no oxygen) bacteria live inside of live rock and in deep sand beds. They can convert nitrate to nitrous oxide but usually cannot keep up with demand,
that is why the new trend is to employ refugiums trhat grow macroalgae that feed on nitrates and phosphates as they grow and when the macroalgae is farvested/pruned the nitrates and phosphates are removed along with it.
Hope this helps.
Just in the last few years it was discovered that anaerobic bacteria (low oxygen) could convert nitrates to harmless nitrous oxide (sp.)
Bio balls are in an oxyen rich environment and become covered with aerobic bacteria which do a great job of converting ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate but that is all bio balls can do for you.
Anaerobic (low oxygen) and anoxic (no oxygen) bacteria live inside of live rock and in deep sand beds. They can convert nitrate to nitrous oxide but usually cannot keep up with demand,
that is why the new trend is to employ refugiums trhat grow macroalgae that feed on nitrates and phosphates as they grow and when the macroalgae is farvested/pruned the nitrates and phosphates are removed along with it.
Hope this helps.
Alaskan Reefer
New member
In general, no bioballs -- they are counterproductive. That said, I have a few handfuls in my sump to keep the noise down (boo for AGA Sump #4 design) and as a safety net -- I don't like the look of 1# of rock per gallon in the tank and like a very cleanable sump so I'm not putting more rock in there either. My nitrates are typically 0.2-0.5ppm using Salifert kits, so barely detectable. Some day I might take them out if I ever find a good reason to -- if you've got a quality skimmer, a reasonable bioload, and some other form of nitrate export (chaeto ball here), you can afford to keep some bioballs and still manage low nitrates.
Uncle Salty 05
New member
Remove the bio balls and just make it a sump with a refugium.
All the bio balls have been removed and a rubbermaid container placed under the stand to act as a sump and am using my w/d filter as my refugium/returm . My next question is on the refugium. What would best in the refugium, lr or ls? The size of the refugium is not very big, it measures 8"x12"x14" and have the water level at 9". I have 900 gph running through the system. Being that it is a small refuguim with a high flow,would it be best to fill it with live rock and let the water flow through it?
Uncle Salty 05
New member
In the refugium you should have a sand bed at least 3-4" deep in my opinion for worms and other critters.
A ball of cheato for nutrient export with decent lighting on a reverse schedule from your display.
The bio-balls are no longer a part of your system correct?
A ball of cheato for nutrient export with decent lighting on a reverse schedule from your display.
The bio-balls are no longer a part of your system correct?
Uncle Salty 05
New member
Some rock is fine, you just want to leave plenty of room for the macro algae to grow.
