bioballs..

[gunzo]

they are nitrate factory?

if they are why are the LFS using it?

they don keep the fish long enough?

just found one of my gobies at the bottom of my IOS today.. suspected that my yashia did the same (only found decomposed pile) a few weeks ago

pain to remove all the balls to catch my goby so thinking of removing them totally just in case again

[Kotobuki]

Bro,

You need to fence up your IOS with a mesh. Els more LS will be killed.

The rule of the thumb:

Bio Ball suspended

Coral Chips submerge

If you have Bio Ball constantly submerge underwater.... Yes, they will become nitrate factory!!

My 2cents

Tak

[gunzo]

thanks for the info..

the ios is fenced.. so scratching head how they got thru..

guess i'll keep the balls then since they are splashed but not submerged

[cityofangels]

Bio balls are good when you're just starting out your marine tank. They allow the good bacteria to grow. Like what Kotobuki has said, do not allow them to be submerged.

However, I find that over time, there will be debri stuck on the bio balls, which may in turn, result in a nitrate spike. Once your tank matures, I highly suggest you remove the bio balls.

I kept my bio balls in my internal overflow system for about 5-6mths and removed all of them when my nitrate spiked to 80-100ppm! After since that nitrate spike and removal of the bio balls, I do regular water changes to keep my nitrates down.

[gny]

My reef tank nitrate hovers ~50ppm even with reguler water change(~15%/mth), beckett running and control feeding.

I remove my bio balls(over flow) and ceramic rings(sump tank) 3 weeks ago as I've seen many discussions about nitrate reduction.

I did a test recently and its ~15ppm.

I can say removing them helps

[zeotz]

I have yet to find a scientific study article on this, and I am still low down in my learning curve. but from I have gathered about bioball, ceramic rings is this:

1. these media are great hosts for aerobic baterias. They will make good home for the bacts who will turn nasty ammonia and nitrite into less harmful nitrate. Even if you suspend the bioball, I still think it cant breakdown the nitrate, unless its thos esepcial type which has ability to host anerobic bact. Bros who thinks otherwise, please share the mechanism/chemistry that makes you think otherwise so we can all learn.

2. Most of these media, cannot host the guys who can break down the nitrate. Hence the term "nitrate factory". I do see some ceramic ring and bioball packs which says they do host anerobic bacts, but how true is this, I am not sure.

3.If you have the same density of bacteria in your system who are nitrate procuders and nitrate breakers (for example LR and DSB), you should be able to control your nitrate.

4. Otherwise u got to find some other way to take out that nitrate (macro algea, denitrators, waterchange etc)

[blueheaven]

The main concern with bioballs and ceramic rings being a nitrate factory is that it traps detritus and the detritus decomposes into nitrates.

And considering that bioballs and ceramic rings are not easy to change frequently, many people advise to remove them.