Bioballs and a bio pellet reactor, match made in heaven?
- Thread starter csmfish
- Start date
LOTUS50GOD
Active member
I think you would need A LOT of pellets to offset the nitrates from the fish AND bioballs.
I do not know of any evidence that bioballs eliminate ammonia or nitrite faster than live rock and sand, and I'm not sure it is a benefit even if it did. Almost no established reef tank with adequate rock and sand has problematic levels of these. 
I also prefer soluble organic dosing like vinegar over pellets, but that's a different issue.
I also prefer soluble organic dosing like vinegar over pellets, but that's a different issue.
csmfish
New member
Hey Randy, good to see you out n about again!
I have read a lot and see where the trends go, and I dont believe everything I read. From what I can put together, "if" everyone is saying bio balls are a nitrate factory, that would tell me that either A, it breaks down the Ammonia and nitrites faster, or, B, it builds up scum you can remove, unless you clean them, which everyone is doing and shame on the ones that are leading us into false areas because they dont clean their stuff and then say "oh my god, there horrible". People like that give bad advice.
Anyways, I guess Randy is saying B, and in that case, hmmmm.... I am going to a 125 in a few days, up and running in a few weeks and will have a lot of home made concrete rocks. I will have a 24" tall tank and maybe 2-3" of sand most, so, will need something else t get rid of all the nasty stuff. I thought balls and pellets would be an awesome solution? Balls and vodka or { insert favorite item here} and vodka? We all know what Randys is!
I have read a lot and see where the trends go, and I dont believe everything I read. From what I can put together, "if" everyone is saying bio balls are a nitrate factory, that would tell me that either A, it breaks down the Ammonia and nitrites faster, or, B, it builds up scum you can remove, unless you clean them, which everyone is doing and shame on the ones that are leading us into false areas because they dont clean their stuff and then say "oh my god, there horrible". People like that give bad advice.
Anyways, I guess Randy is saying B, and in that case, hmmmm.... I am going to a 125 in a few days, up and running in a few weeks and will have a lot of home made concrete rocks. I will have a 24" tall tank and maybe 2-3" of sand most, so, will need something else t get rid of all the nasty stuff. I thought balls and pellets would be an awesome solution? Balls and vodka or { insert favorite item here} and vodka? We all know what Randys is!
Hey Randy, good to see you out n about again!
I have read a lot and see where the trends go, and I dont believe everything I read. From what I can put together, "if" everyone is saying bio balls are a nitrate factory, that would tell me that either A, it breaks down the Ammonia and nitrites faster, or, B, it builds up scum you can remove, unless you clean them, which everyone is doing and shame on the ones that are leading us into false areas because they dont clean their stuff and then say "oh my god, there horrible". People like that give bad advice.
Anyways, I guess Randy is saying B, and in that case, hmmmm.... I am going to a 125 in a few days, up and running in a few weeks and will have a lot of home made concrete rocks. I will have a 24" tall tank and maybe 2-3" of sand most, so, will need something else t get rid of all the nasty stuff. I thought balls and pellets would be an awesome solution? Balls and vodka or { insert favorite item here} and vodka? We all know what Randys is!
The answer is C.
Here's a cut and paste from my nitrate article on why I'd refer to them as a nitrate factory without removing ammonia or nitrite any faster:
Such filters do a fine job of processing ammonia to nitrite to nitrate, but do nothing with the nitrate. It is often non-intuitive to many aquarists, but removing such a filter altogether may actually help reduce nitrate. So slowly removing them and allowing more of the nitrogen processing to take place on and in the live rock and sand can be beneficial.
It is not that any less nitrate is produced when such a filter is removed, it is a question of what happens to the nitrate after it is produced.
When it is produced on the surface of media such as bioballs, it mixes into the entire water column, and then has to find its way, by diffusion, to the places where it may be reduced (inside of live rock and sand, for instance).
If it is produced on the surface of live rock or sand, then the local concentration of nitrate is higher there than in the first case above, and it is more likely to diffuse into the rock and sand to be reduced to N2.
csmfish
New member
That looks like a great recipe, and or idea, for a DSB and actual rock. I will be working with a 2.5" at most sand bed and concrete rock work, which I believe is absolutely not porous. So, for me, it looks like maybe "something" FAST for Amonia + nitrites and viniger for Nitrates?
I'd go a little further than Randy and say that most wet/dry filters do indeed result in the production of higher nutrients rather than simply not reducing them.
It's very difficult to design a wet/dry that is easy to clean, keeps most of the bioballs above water, and also has effective mechanical filtration upstream. Therefore few of these filters actually have all those qualities and the bioballs end up trapping detritus that decays instead of being exported as it would in a filter sock. Even if you can clean everything effectively, you're not going to be doing it with the same frequency with which you would be exporting debris in other types of filtration.
That's not to say that live rock is a panacea--People hear that you should use lots of it to offset the lack of bioballs and end up putting in a thousand pounds per gallon and the tank has the same nutrient problems that it would with bioballs because there's no way to keep it clean.
It's very difficult to design a wet/dry that is easy to clean, keeps most of the bioballs above water, and also has effective mechanical filtration upstream. Therefore few of these filters actually have all those qualities and the bioballs end up trapping detritus that decays instead of being exported as it would in a filter sock. Even if you can clean everything effectively, you're not going to be doing it with the same frequency with which you would be exporting debris in other types of filtration.
That's not to say that live rock is a panacea--People hear that you should use lots of it to offset the lack of bioballs and end up putting in a thousand pounds per gallon and the tank has the same nutrient problems that it would with bioballs because there's no way to keep it clean.
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