Bio Ball Or Bio Ring?which 1 Is Better?

[y_sweebeng]

pls help?

[Clownfish]

Do u mean bio ring or ceramic ring?

anyway, wat do u intend to use them for?

[y_sweebeng]

i use them to put in my sump tank

[FuEl]

I use biohome...works like a miracle for me.

[metals99]

bioballs useless for marine... ceramic is your bacterias home

[Clownfish]

i use them to put in my sump tank

ermm... i mean u wanna use them for a wet/dry filter or as a biological filter?

if u r using a wet/dry filter, it's betta to use bioballs....

biological filter wise, it's betta to have 3 phases of filtration... from the largest size coral chips to the smallest size coral chips.....

btw, dun think ceramic chips is veri effective for marine use....

alternatively, u may wan to modify to create a refuguim? cos by far, refuguim controls nitrate to some extent, rather than other types....

[y_sweebeng]

i already have a refugium with 460 bio ball but recently my NO3 raise up a lot,thinking of replacing my bio ball with bio ring,i heard bio ball cannot b totally submerge in water is it true?

[Clownfish]

u mean those plastic bio rings? think shld work betta cos saw ML display tank using them oso

btw, u said 'bio ball cannot b totally submerge in water' means u act let them float on ur water?

in that case, how ur caulpera get their lights?

[y_sweebeng]

no,actually lot's of them is submerge in the water.

[y_sweebeng]

what is caulpera?/

[Achilles Tang]

biological filter wise, it's betta to have 3 phases of filtration... from the largest size coral chips to the smallest size coral chips.....

Could you explain your 3 phases of filtration in detail? And where did you hear this from?

[Anthony]

freshwater method

[KingFish]

Use non at all, it'll only serve to trap detritus and become a source of nitrate

Rather use the space to increase volume of water, or Live Rocks for filtration instead.

[SharkBait]

freshwater method

woah!check out his avatar.

[Clownfish]

Could you explain your 3 phases of filtration in detail? And where did you hear this from?

Read from somewhere b4.... concept is stg like wat SL n R*B&*N is using except that it seems to serve more purposes....

dun noe whether there is denitrifying effects when water goes to the last partition....

personally, i think no one is using the method except fish shops cos it needs a lot of space....

might as well use a refuguim or a wet/dry filter

btw, i WAS using a sump with filter system like SL with water passing thru a layer of chips.... works like a wet/dry filter but has nitrate headache....

that's y i always say: do it once, do it good!

dun be an idiot like me, buy wrong sump design, constantly still trying to modify it into a refuguim, also kana scolded by mother

[Clownfish]

what is caulpera?/

=a kind of macroalgae

[Mellow]

agree with rumour..use none of it as they serve as nitrate factories in the near future....

[y_sweebeng]

now i have 460pcs of bio ball in my 1st n 2nd compartment of my sump tank,do i need to remove them?my NO3=100ppm,but fish is doing fine except 1 singapore angel has white spot/ich.my tank is 3 feet & i m using a 3 feet tank as sump tank also i got DSB+30KG of LR+skimmer

[Achilles Tang]

High nitrates are not good for livestock in the long run, especially at 100ppm.

Your bioballs are too efficient at converting ammonia and nitrites to nitrates but your filtration system does not have the capability to convert nitrates to nitrogen gas. Therefore you should remove your bioballs or be subjected to perpetually high nitrates.

You therefore have no choice but to do regular water changes to dilute the nitrate levels or upgrade your skimmer to remove dissolved organics/wastes right from the start.

By removing the bioballs slowly, you will allow your bacteria in other parts of your system (eg. LR and sandbed) to cope with ammonia and nitrites gradually and overtime, if you set up your sandbed right or have enough LR, to have some denitrification effects working ie. converting nitrates to harmless nitrogen gas.

[Achilles Tang]

Read from somewhere b4.... concept is stg like wat SL n R*B&*N is using except that it seems to serve more purposes....

dun noe whether there is denitrifying effects when water goes to the last partition....

personally, i think no one is using the method except fish shops cos it needs a lot of space....

might as well use a refuguim or a wet/dry filter

btw, i WAS using a sump with filter system like SL with water passing thru a layer of chips.... works like a wet/dry filter but has nitrate headache....

that's y i always say: do it once, do it good!

dun be an idiot like me, buy wrong sump design, constantly still trying to modify it into a refuguim, also kana scolded by mother

Clownfish, I hate to be the one bursting your bubble, but heard the saying 'monkey see, monkey do'? I was once a monkey of LFS too.

LFS will teach you many things but have you actually measured the water quality of LFS... they suck. The old school method of using coral chips in sump has no purpose other than to generate more $$$ for LFS.

According to them... coral chips aid filtration... buffer your PH and calcium. Total C R A P!

Let me explain and I hope you see the logic:

Using coral chips in sumps (esp in flow-thru compartments) serve nothing more than to trap detritus and become nitrate factories!!! Having your 3 compartments of different grades of coral chips will probably make your water clear of any floating detritus but that's because they ARE ALL TRAPPED inside your coral chip compartments!

What happens then? The organic detritus ROTS... and then... what do you get? Geddit? So you go back to the LFS... i got high nitrates problem... so how? No problem sir... you get this product and this product, buy more salt for water change, buy this and I guarantee your nitrate problems will be solved... yeah right!

Do not confuse a DSB with a similarly deep coral chip compartment in your sump. DSBs have denitrification effects because of the anaerobic zone at the bottom. Flow thru compartments DO NOT work similarly as water and oxygen PASSES THRU the compartment full of coral chips.

Hope you understand the biology, if not the logic of tank setups, because sometimes, giving the wrong info to newbies can be very damaging, so don't give them if you're not sure... or you're be no differnt from some LFS with their 'good advice'.

[Clownfish]

Clownfish, I hate to be the one bursting your bubble, but heard the saying 'monkey see, monkey do'? I was once a monkey of LFS too.

LFS will teach you many things but have you actually measured the water quality of LFS... they suck. The old school method of using coral chips in sump has no purpose other than to generate more $$$ for LFS.

According to them... coral chips aid filtration... buffer your PH and calcium. Total C R A P!

Let me explain and I hope you see the logic:

Using coral chips in sumps (esp in flow-thru compartments) serve nothing more than to trap detritus and become nitrate factories!!! Having your 3 compartments of different grades of coral chips will probably make your water clear of any floating detritus but that's because they ARE ALL TRAPPED inside your coral chip compartments!

What happens then? The organic detritus ROTS... and then... what do you get? Geddit? So you go back to the LFS... i got high nitrates problem... so how? No problem sir... you get this product and this product, buy more salt for water change, buy this and I guarantee your nitrate problems will be solved... yeah right!

Do not confuse a DSB with a similarly deep coral chip compartment in your sump. DSBs have denitrification effects because of the anaerobic zone at the bottom. Flow thru compartments DO NOT work similarly as water and oxygen PASSES THRU the compartment full of coral chips.

Hope you understand the biology, if not the logic of tank setups, because sometimes, giving the wrong info to newbies can be very damaging, so don't give them if you're not sure... or you're be no differnt from some LFS with their 'good advice'.

that's y i'm throwing away my coral chips.... slowly, of course.....

hope i can resolve my nitrate prob in this way...

AT, actually wat u say is true, when i first started out, there's this shop ( i wont state the name ) who recommended me coral chips for filtration.... then when i told him/her bout my nitrate, he/she recommended me to buy $40+ nitrate reducer stuff ( i wont say the product name as well )....

anyways, will experiment and take out all the coral chips eventually n if it realli has some great impact, will do a feedback/review so that some other reefers can learn from my mistake

Thx for the advice, hope fellow reefers will see the light as well

[y_sweebeng]

High nitrates are not good for livestock in the long run, especially at 100ppm.

Your bioballs are too efficient at converting ammonia and nitrites to nitrates but your filtration system does not have the capability to convert nitrates to nitrogen gas. Therefore you should remove your bioballs or be subjected to perpetually high nitrates.

You therefore have no choice but to do regular water changes to dilute the nitrate levels or upgrade your skimmer to remove dissolved organics/wastes right from the start.

By removing the bioballs slowly, you will allow your bacteria in other parts of your system (eg. LR and sandbed) to cope with ammonia and nitrites gradually and overtime, if you set up your sandbed right or have enough LR, to have some denitrification effects working ie. converting nitrates to harmless nitrogen gas.

already removed all the sponge n 90pcs of bioballs,will remove another 90pcs next weeks,is that ok?thanks,but my sg angel got ich leh,how ah?