bio balls yes /or no whats your thought

No Good at all, They are Nitrate Factories and have not been used for years. You are better off using Live Rock in it's place.
Bill
 
Old tech. Nitrate factories. I pulled all mine in 2006

Please excuse my brevity. This was sent from my Android via Tapatalk
 
Can someone tell me what the difference is between live rock and bio balls?

Personally, I've never understood this argument. In my experience, they both trap detritus. Bioballs may trap a bit more, but that's the only disadvantage I can see and that's arguable.

Brandon
 
From what i have read and what i understand. The bio-balls have more pores that equate to more surface area for beneficial denitrifing bactera to grow on. Your live rock does the same thing, but does not offer the same amount of surface area and therefore processess less water. So to me it seems like SOME of the bio-balls would be better at this.

With that being said, it also traps a lot of bad things in the balls and would dirty up your water unless it's replaced or cleaned when it stops working.

Someone feel free to correct me or further educate me where i'm wrong here.
 
Bio Balls are great for Fish only tanks. But reef tanks are better off with Live Rock. Live rock actualy can harbor the bacteria that breaks down Nitrate also, tho only in small quantities, where as bios balls do not.
 
We'll think I can see what way I need to go ! What about the chamber in my sump that has water trickle over the bio balls could I take them out and replace with live rock rubble ? Reason I ask is because the rock would not be under water it would have water running over it ?
 
kels0948 said:
We'll think I can see what way I need to go ! What about the chamber in my sump that has water trickle over the bio balls could I take them out and replace with live rock rubble ? Reason I ask is because the rock would not be under water it would have water running over it ?
Click to expand...

Exactly what you would want to do.
 
Just want to know if I could put live rock where my boio balls used to be in my sump cause it's not under water it's in a chamber that water flows over it's a wet dry sump ?
 
As you can see in general Bio-Balls are not considered good.

How big of a tank?
What are you planning on keeping?
How much live rock will be in the tank?
Planning on running any kind of ULNS?

Brett
 
kels0948 said:
Just want to know if I could put live rock where my boio balls used to be in my sump cause it's not under water it's in a chamber that water flows over it's a wet dry sump ?
Click to expand...

Yes if the rock is getting constant water flow over it. It would be better to have it under water, but that will work. Just keep it wet.
 
commonstranger said:
Mental Note : Beat up Brandon the next time I see him for not agreeing with me. (lol)
Click to expand...

:lol: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Rhett. :)

All I'm saying is that I don't see much difference between them, and other than Rick pointing out that LR can harbor a little bit of anaerobic bacteria, no one else has said anything different either. :)

Don't get me wrong, I use LR, and if you use some sort of mechanical filtration (filter floss, filter socks, etc. like the link Rick put up talks about) it cuts WAY down on the issue anyway.

Just a thought or two. :)

Brandon
 
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