Bio Balls Vs. Live Rock

[cedyced]

I have been reading a lot about bio balls and live rock the past week. I have LR in my tank and bio balls in my canister filters. (2 xp3's) I have an 80 gal tank with about 60lbs of LR. Is it not good to have LR and bio balls together? Do I need to remove my bio balls.

 

[SkiFletch]

If not properly cleaned, bio balls will become a nitrate producing medium in saltwater environments. Then if you dont have sufficient nutrient export, the resulting rise in nitrates could be detrimental to your livestock. The problem is, bio balls dont have the ability to house any organisms which eat nitrate, only those that create it. Therefore, they're inferior to LR

 

[cedyced]

So should I get rid of the bio balls or is it okay to run the bio balls and live rock together?

 

[callum_parsons]

i would say no to bio balls if you have enough live rock. i have taken mine out

 

[robbhp]

i hink ski is trying to say if you clean them, lets say every other wekk and only half of them, you should be ok , but i dont think that you need them at all , you have a lot of live rock in your tank and as long as you have good water movement it should take care of you filtering needs. also do not just pull all the bio-balls out at once do it over time as the live rock will have to setup its work load, if you do it to fast you will get a spike NO2 and as you know that is not good

hope that helps

ps but if every thing in your tank is good, and working well i would just leave it well alone

 

[cedyced]

good advice. What about the "macaroni" in the canisters? Do I just leave those in? That's to help control the ammonia right..?

 

[robbhp]

yes they will help but the problem you may find is that the bi-product of both ammonia and nitrite is nitrate. your live rock can get rid of nitrate at a far better rate than that of you your noodles. infact your noodles will only make nitrate (NO3) this will fuel algy in your tank, and no noe like green algy .

so yes the noodles do control ammonia (NH3) and nitrite (NO2), but they tunr that into nitrate (NO3) which then helps allthing green take over your tank

 

[SkiFletch]

If you have enough LR (and you should cause its the best filtration money can buy) then bioballs and other man-made bio media are unnecssary. Canister filters can still be used for added flowrate and for chemical filtration (notably carbon and phosphate filtration) but trust me, the LR is eons better at performing filtration tasks than anything we can make as people

 

[callum_parsons]

dont mean to steal the thread but does the bacteria in live rock remove fish poop so i wouldnt need filter wool or sponges

 

[SkiFletch]

The bacteria do not but the bristleworms and other life forms do

 

[cedyced]

This really cleared up a lot for me.. Thanks Guys..

 

[hubbard_shark]

how about for a refugium? im running mine off bioballs, but have heard that soon or future wise, live rock would be better. is this true?

 

[SkiFletch]

Liverock > bio balls anywhere in the tank

 

[robbhp]

you should try to use live rock where ever poss, if it works in nature it should work in your tank too. fish wast will hang around in your filter, this will help the growth of both the ammonia and nitrite. which will then turn in to nitrate NO3. but the wast will stay in your filter (rotting away) if some fish waste lands on a peace of live rock you will find that the clean up crew will take care of it as this is there main form of food. thus reducing the amount of NO3 in your tank, and then cutting down the amount of algy. hope this helps

i think people miss-understand what live rock is. At the end of the day it is just a rock, with many small holes and nucks and crankeis. this allows lots of life to live on the surface, and in the rock. it is these small helper that make the live rock so good .

if i was you i would load the sump with some form or microalgy, will help with the removal of NO3 ffrom the tank, it will also help reduce the amount of water changes too.

ROB

 

[andywg]

the LR is eons better at performing filtration tasks than anything we can make as people

Liverock > bio balls anywhere in the tank

This all depends on the tank system.

In a large predator system, using bioballs will allow far greater removal of ammonia and nitrite than live rock will, unless you fill the tank with LR and have no room for fish to move, or have a huge sump to house it all.

It is horses for courses. In a reef LR is by far the best, but in a tank for large preds (especially so with sharks) then trickle towers with bioballs become much better. Obviously you need some nitrate export, but overskimming and DSB can help with that.

The big problem with bio balls a filtration media is that people do not clean them or set them up right (much like DSB). Put the bio balls out of water in a tower and have a layer of filter floss above a drip tray and all you need to do is change/cean the floss every few days and maybe maintain the bioballs once a year.

Bioballs in a trickle tower can convert ammonia through nitrite to nitrate quicker than live rock will. As mentioned above, it won't handle the end result like nitrates will.

Bottom line: reefs should mostly rely on LR, large preds should look for some supplemntation from man made filtration.