Bio Balls vs. LR in sump?

[tanksfishtank]

For my filtration of my fowlr tank(which is very lightly stocked), I have a wet dry with bio balls, protein skimmer that is +1 for my tank, and a refugium. My question is, in my wet dry would it be beneficial to replace my bio balls with live rock to help reduce my nitrates? Water changes obviously help, however, it would be nice to try to figure out a way to help reduce the levels if there is an easier way. Thanks for the advice!!

 

[tanksfishtank]

After researching most of the afternoon, I just got back from my lfs where I bought about 15 lbs of LR and switched it out for most of my bio balls. I will post results of weather or not this helped me.

 

[manchreef7]

It should help in the long run. Bio balls tend to work well at what they do, and that is harbor aerobic bacteria. Which in turn converts amm, nitrite into nitrate. Live rock will harbor anaerobic bacteria which goes a step further

 

[karsseboom]

Yeah Bio balls are good for fresh tanks but you don't need them for a salt tank. Good please Skimmer liverock and your set.

 

[tanksfishtank]

I have already started to notice a difference in the rate that my nitrates go up. Usually I have to do a 25 gallon water change every 1 to 2 weeks because the nitrates will go from 10-40 in that time. However in the last 3 days since taking out most of the bio balls and replacing them with LR, my nitrates have actually gone down a little. I will continue to update and let you know how this works out long term.

 

[jordancemery65]

I have had bio balls in my sump since i started my tank 2 years ago and have had no problems (knock on wood). I do have a lot of LR in may tank though, as well as a deep sand bed! All of that helps!!!

 

[sporto0]

Here's the flaw in your theory, replacing bio-balls with live rock in the same chamber will do nothing different, in fact in my opinion live rock will trap more detritius & waste than bio-balls, live rock exposed to a highly oxygenated areas can not support anaerobic bacteria that convert nitrates to nitrogen gas, if indeed you noticed a lower level of nitrates now it is because your bio-balls were dirty, this is a temporary reduction. The live rock must be totally submerged & not subjected to higher oxygen content, in other words they need to be in low flow areas & on top of that it must be very porous rock in order for anaerobic bacteria to colonize deep inside the rock. You might as well have just cleaned your bio-balls every 4-6 months & left them be.

 

[tanksfishtank]

Hey sporto0, thanks for the informative reply! I took your advice and cleaned some of my bio balls and put them back into my sump. I left a few pieces of LR in the sump (fully submerged) but I put most of the bio balls back. After almost 2 weeks, my nitrates are not rising at nearly as high of a rate as they were before I started this experiment. As I said earlier, thanks for the reply!

 

[wildman926]

I have 0 nitrates on both 80g & 110g after going fully live rock in my wetdry. This has been like this for 6 months now. 80g has a 2" sandbed, the 110g has a 4" sandbed (only to help out shutting down the 80, and converting a 150g from FW to SW). Go and try it, and see what works for you. The stability and health of your tank are the sum of your entire combo, not just one aspect. NOTHING is maintenance free. You have to clean the lr as you would any other media that you place there. As you can see in my pics, the lr is raised off the bottom to allow any detritus to flow out.

 

[tanksfishtank]

Thanks for the reply Wildman! Those are a couple of great looking setups you've got! As of now I am going to keep it the way it is and see if it works out for me. Are you happy with your Reef Octopus skimmer? I have had mine for about 3 months and I love it!

 

[tanksfishtank]

After cleaning the bio balls and adding some live rock to the sump, the rises in my nitrate levels has slowed drastically. I have yet to have my nitrate level in my tank reach 30. I am not sure if this is the cure all for everyone, but it has worked great for me.

 

[wildman926]

After cleaning the bio balls and adding some live rock to the sump, the rises in my nitrate levels has slowed drastically. I have yet to have my nitrate level in my tank reach 30. I am not sure if this is the cure all for everyone, but it has worked great for me.

It will only get better as you replace all of the bio balls with live rock. Glad to see someone else try this, and see the benefits. :beer:

 

[sporto0]

Hey sporto0, thanks for the informative reply! I took your advice and cleaned some of my bio balls and put them back into my sump. I left a few pieces of LR in the sump (fully submerged) but I put most of the bio balls back. After almost 2 weeks, my nitrates are not rising at nearly as high of a rate as they were before I started this experiment. As I said earlier, thanks for the reply!

No problem, I'm glad it's working for you, nitrates are going to be present, the trick is to keep them at a manageable level, with that said, they are not harmful & only cause problems when they are so high that nuisance algae appears & this usually is in conjunction with high phosphates as well. I always feel like no matter what filtration system I use, & I use bio-balls on my reef (not recommending it for everyone) by keeping the bio load small to medium, my nitrate & phosphate levels remain very low, after all nitrates don't appear out of thin air or in this case out of thin water, they come from waste from our livestock, so by keeping my fish numbers & feeding low my system does not approach dangerous levels. Good luck.