Moving bio balls causes cloudy water?

[Aquareef123]

I will give my opinion and hopefully don't get attacked by the bros here. I'm a newbies even though I have been reefing for 10 years.

If you want to know if bioballs work or not, go to AM and see their 2 magnificent display tanks. Ask for permission from Ah Heng before opening up the cabinet below and you will find each with a chamber of bioballs.

Firestarter is right to say that there are 3 basic types. Mechanical, biological and chemical (in the following order). I cannot agree more with the word "in that order".

It is important to deploy mechanical filter (like cotton wool and socks and replace them regularly) to remove the debris so that they don't get trapped in the biological filter and start to decay in the biological filter. The biological filter is supposed to do it's job and convert ammonia to nitrite and subsequently nitrite to nitrate. That's when the refugium and/or biopellet reactor comes in and consume the nitrate.

So if properly deployed, the filtration system is supposed to remove the waste at each and every stage of the nitrogen cycle. That's just my personal opinion.

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[xiggie]

Wow... This thread is going somewhere else... Let's get back to the point..

I routinely shake up my bio balls in the sump to prevent dirt from getting trapped on them to increase the surface area for bacteria to grow.

Problem is when I do so, the water always turns slightly cloudy.

Any reason behind this?

Problem: Balls are shaken and they eject dirt into main tank making it cloudy ...

Solution : remove balls replace with rocks , don't shake the rocks but siphon the dirt out of the tank .. = clean , crystal clear main tank.

Or if you still wanna use them , before u shake your balls put some filter floss in the next compartment trapping the dirt so they don't go into the main tank..