yes or no to bio-balls?

[viggen]

I know it's been asked 1000x's but I can't decide what to do. For about 2 years now I have been SLOWLY setting up my 475g..... hooked it all up & my w/d filter decided to crack on me. A few months later that was fixed & I had a 2nd sump made to connect together.... it was made to large thus been waiting for about 3 months for another one to be made.

Which has me thinking.... maybe someone is trying to tell me bio-balls are bad & I should go the FOWLR route?

Tanks is about 475g (120x30x30) & I have about 300#'s of LR in there now, I hope to buy more in the next week or two. Should I axe the wet/dry & do a refugium?? The fuge would be 36x25x17-25 tall..... with a 2nd sump to hold my skimmer & return pump.

I plan on having a few large angels (queen, passer, emperor) & also large tangs (sohal, powder blue, naso) & a trigger or two.... so it will be more on the side of heavy bio load.

Would liverock & a fuge keep my fish healthy & happy?

 

[natebedwell06]

No, bio balls become a nitrate factory, the only thing i can see bioballs being good for is establishing bacteria, but then after that i see them as pretty much worthless

 

[JamesJR]

They are fine for fish only tanks IMHO. All of this talk of them being nitrate factories is pure rubish and in a fish only tank nitrates are not much of a concern anyway.

 

[namxas]

They are fine for fish only tanks IMHO. All of this talk of them being nitrate factories is pure rubish and in a fish only tank nitrates are not much of a concern anyway.

It depends on the fish...we have certain fish that quit eating when the 'trates rise.

As for NO3 production, it all depends on how clean you keep the bioballs or how you prefilter them. Personally, I'm to lazy for that, so I run lots of live macro and LR.

 

[viggen]

with bioballs prefiltering will simply be a filter pad on top of the bio-balls tray.... but yea I get lazy keeping that clean on the 210g.

I might do xenia or other simple/hardy stuff. Love to have a clown (maroon preferably) with a anemone (no clue how to spell it) but not sure I can with the other fish I want in there. Would bioballs be a no-no with those in the tank?

So if I skip the w/d do I do a refigium with a deep sand bed? Any pics would be helpful. Going this route I would use filter socks if they can fit

 

[reefergeorge]

If you are going to have big fish, and ammonia is going to be a problem, bio-balls are great at changing it to trates very quickly.

If you can get away with just using live rock, I would go that route. I personally would never use a deep sand bed. It seems like they are always the tanks that crash.

 

[Wolverine]

I'd just do a fuge and LR. Like Greg, I tend to be too lazy to keep the bioballs as clean as they need to be to avoid trouble (IME, most people are when it comes to these).

 

[viggen]

I am sorry but I must disreguard any posts from a wolverine since I am a buckeye ... last weeks game was a LOT closer then I thought is was going to be.

Anyways thanks for all the input. So even with 3 or so large angels & 1-2 large triggers & a few large tangs LR & a few smaller fish a fuge & a bunch of LR can keep up.

 

[faze07hd]

i was interested in this same question myself... I had a reef tank for years and it needed to be filtered with a sock. Since then, might be interested in the future in a FOWLR tank.

I'm wondering if you combo a UV sterilizer with bioballs, what could be so wrong with that?

 

[Wolverine]

I am sorry but I must disreguard any posts from a wolverine since I am a buckeye ... last weeks game was a LOT closer then I thought is was going to be.

I knew it was going to be close, since I knew OSU would go all out; they were really in a nothing to lose situation, so they seemed to finally let Miller cut lose.

I'll try not to hold that against you and slip on the ban button

Anyways thanks for all the input. So even with 3 or so large angels & 1-2 large triggers & a few large tangs LR & a few smaller fish a fuge & a bunch of LR can keep up.

Yes, it can.

 

[viggen]

:debi:

My brother was talking about the game last night at my youngest b-day party. He thought M was playing w/o a quarterback due to how well he was running then he saw him throw..... I think the next few years should be great games between the teams, going to be interesting. Hopefully not like the time when I went to OSU.... M beat us every time

going to call up g cages tomorrow and see how long it would take them to make another sump for me. Hopefully they would have it so I can pick it up next week.... but I doubt it.... ugh

so no bio balls it is

 

[namxas]

i was interested in this same question myself... I had a reef tank for years and it needed to be filtered with a sock. Since then, might be interested in the future in a FOWLR tank.

I'm wondering if you combo a UV sterilizer with bioballs, what could be so wrong with that?

It depends on what you want the UV unit to do. The key thing is that a UV unit only kills waterborne organisms and most of the bacteria, protozoans, etc we worry about are benthic/demersal, so they won't be touched. However, a UV unit will kill algae spores. Don't worry about pods, because most are also benthic, and for those that aren't, the flow (dwell time in the chamber) and power of the UV must be sufficient to kill them.

I have two UV units, and they both currently reside in my closet.

 

[viggen]

Ooops.... missed the UV post.... to buzy giving wolverine a hard time

I have used UV's on/off (mostly off) for about 20yrs now with wet/dry filters. They do help reduce the emoung of algae on the glass but every time I hook one up I seem to not keep the bulb replaced thus it ends up residing in my garage, which is where they both sit now. I think I will go the ozone route this time, eliminate the upkeep of replacing bulbs every 6-12 months.

I do plan on using a UV on my QT tank......

I just ordered a 2nd sump today so I will be going the fuge route

faze.... seems like from everything I read if you have liverock bio-balls are not needed. If you do not have LR then do not get bio-balls, just stick with the LR.

 

[jarrod13]

I've always used bio balls on my reefs and FO's and never had a problem. I change out the pad regularly and keep the bottom of sump clean. On my current setup I'm using a wet dry and a fuge with no sand bed, haven't seen any problems yet. JME

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

no bio balls. NO no NO! all live rock rubble, and a big oversized skimmer

 

[alton]

First there was bio bale and then bio balls. For 20 years I have had at least one part of my system with them and never had a system crash. Before I moved up to my 300, I had a 200 Oceanic with Bio Balls that was set up for ten years. During the ten years the nitrate levels where below 5ppm. And this tank was full of fish and corals. Keep a filter pad on top and you will be fine. I also keep a sand refugium to help control nitrates. I like the trickle effect that the bio balls give to the water.

 

[wlyon]

I agree on bio balls eventually turning into a breeding ground for nitrates!

Also with predators comes big leftovers after feeding time which get caught in the bio balls and start to root in your sump, I seemed to have less problems with this when I switched to rubble and let the food just get caught in the filter pads/socks which can be cleaned easily compared to scrubbing each bio-ball with a tooth brush : (

 

[wlyon]

I agree that bio balls eventually turning into a breeding ground for nitrates!

Also with predators comes big leftovers after feeding time which get caught in the bio balls and start to root in your sump, I seemed to have less problems with this when I switched to rubble and let the food just get caught in the filter pads/socks which can be cleaned easily compared to scrubbing each bio-ball with a tooth brush : (

 

[TitanTV]

I always disagree with the majority on this topic. While I have no bioballs if I felt I needed more bio fitration I am not against them. The bioball "nitrate factory" has one major flaw in its position and it is the entire nitrate cycle. Ammonia is converted to Nitrite. Nitrite is converted to Nitrate. If you do not have Nitrite you cannot have Nitrate via the normal cycle. If you are adding Nitrate to your tank through city water then that has zero to do with the bioballs. And the arguement they collect gunk, well live rock collects more gunk.

You will loose the minor nitrate breakdown from the live rocks but its not that major of a function. Just get a fuge or better yet lower your stocking levels.

The one question i ask which never gets answered is... Can someone tell me how bioballs create Nitrate without any Nitrite being in the tank first?

 

[Wolverine]

The one question i ask which never gets answered is... Can someone tell me how bioballs create Nitrate without any Nitrite being in the tank first?

They don't. They grow bacteria that quickly convert ammonia to nitrite, and then nitrite to nitrate. Both sets of bacteria grow on the bioballs and very quickly make this conversion. Basically, the nitrite gets converted to nitrate before it can get out of the bioballs.

If you have large, healthy pieces of LR, you get hypoxic areas to convert that nitrate back to nitrogen very efficiently, which you don't get with bioballs, since they generally don't have any hypoxic areas, unless something is set up very wrong.