Removing Ceramic Bio Balls?

[Haggisman14]

I've got a bag of ceramic bio balls that came with my eShopps Deskmate in the rear chamber of the tank. Been in there for 10 months now, and the tank is doing great. Will I need to remove them at some point, or will it be just like live rock and I can leave them in there.

In all my other tanks I've only ever used live rock and rock rubble, so wanted to make sure I can keep them in there.

Thank you!

Tank in it's current form:

Rear Chamber:

 

[CasperOe]

Aye just leave them in there! I have a wast amount of them in my sump- some being near to 5 years old.

 

[CasperOe]

...

 

[Haggisman14]

Thanks!

I'll just continue to blow off the detritus from the top of them when I do my weekly water changes, and let em rock and roll.

Appreciate the feedback and pictures!

 

[TX_REEF]

yes, leave them alone! removing suddenly them would harm your bio filter.

 

[Haggisman14]

yes, leave them alone! removing suddenly them would harm your bio filter.

Thanks!

 

[brandon429]

There is no reef tank in the world where the biofilter on rocks and sand would be harmed by removing the surrounding surface area from sumps or back chambers or from the display

those ceramic spheres aren’t doing anything you can measure


if you add ten more, what you can measure regarding ammonia control is the same as if you instantly removed them all, *and the sand* *and half your live rock* leaving only the leftover rocks and the current bioload. Thinking that a reef tank needs surface area beyond just a portion of the existing rocks to function is old cycling science, the fear of too few bacteria.


your ammonia control cant be affected by adding more or reducing the existing spheres, they’re impact is neutral to your biofilter because the live rock surface area is beyond what the tank needs.

they are harmless and neutral. If the waste wasn’t getting caught there in the spheres it would just get caught in the display or on the floor of the back chamber

 

[brandon429]

right now someone is looking up a meme to describe a crazy person he he


as if removing -bacteria- from a bio system won’t lower the filtration ability….


it won’t, it doesn’t, here’s sixty pages of us using the new rules for real reef tank work:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

in that thread in several jobs we removed 100% of the extra surface area from established reef tanks so we can move homes or upgrade / change tanks, leaving only some or all of the original rockwork (keeping the same fish load) and not one tank died

not one time did a calibrated seneye show a loss of biofilter

why is that


because to drive a car down the highway I need only four tires.


if someone sells me a dually and I remove the two extra back tires I can still drive down the freeway


bioballs, ceramic spheres, bio matrix, reef tank sand, and about 70% of people’s live rock are just two extra tires attached to the reef vehicle. For the bioloads we carry, even in lots of fish setups, thirty percent of the rock we use is still more than the system needs. So this means in all of reefing, all of it per the thread above, if we just keep some or all of the original live rock in the display we are free to do what we want with reef tanks and all the filtration surface area we were trained to use (you can remove it without harm)


old cycling science removes options of cleaning, handling and reef care by supplanting in concern over bacteria


new cycling science adds new options to reefing care, handling and procedure by instilling complete confidence in bacteria even where numbers are reduced. New cycling science knows to factor surface area and placement in reef jobs



Casper this is yet another bucket experiment you can do with a calibrated seneye. Set up a skip cycle bucket reef with fish in it, bioballs in a filter hooked to it, and get an nh3 baseline going from the seneye


pull off the bioballs filter and see if the nh3 levels change

then start pulling out rocks and see how many have to be removed before the fish bioload can’t be carried. I predict a mere 10% of the original rock structure still carries the whole system if the rocks are in the display area right where the fish are

 

[TX_REEF]

right now someone is looking up a meme to describe a crazy person he he


as if removing -bacteria- from a bio system won’t lower the filtration ability….


it won’t, it doesn’t, here’s sixty pages of us using the new rules for real reef tank work:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

in that thread in several jobs we removed 100% of the extra surface area from established reef tanks so we can move homes or upgrade / change tanks, leaving only some or all of the original rockwork (keeping the same fish load) and not one tank died

not one time did a calibrated seneye show a loss of biofilter

why is that


because to drive a car down the highway I need only four tires.


if someone sells me a dually and I remove the two extra back tires I can still drive down the freeway


bioballs, ceramic spheres, bio matrix, reef tank sand, and about 70% of people’s live rock are just two extra tires attached to the reef vehicle. For the bioloads we carry, even in lots of fish setups, thirty percent of the rock we use is still more than the system needs. So this means in all of reefing, all of it per the thread above, if we just keep some or all of the original live rock in the display we are free to do what we want with reef tanks and all the filtration surface area we were trained to use (you can remove it without harm)


old cycling science removes options of cleaning, handling and reef care by supplanting in concern over bacteria


new cycling science adds new options to reefing care, handling and procedure by instilling complete confidence in bacteria even where numbers are reduced. New cycling science knows to factor surface area and placement in reef jobs



Casper this is yet another bucket experiment you can do with a calibrated seneye. Set up a skip cycle bucket reef with fish in it, bioballs in a filter hooked to it, and get an nh3 baseline going from the seneye


pull off the bioballs filter and see if the nh3 levels change

then start pulling out rocks and see how many have to be removed before the fish bioload can’t be carried. I predict a mere 10% of the original rock structure still carries the whole system if the rocks are in the display area right where the fish are

Thank you for that info in all seriousness, it's really helpful. I have always been a "more rock more better" type person but it's comforting to know it's not required and the universe won't collapse if rock sand etc. is removed for whatever reason

 

[Haggisman14]

Agreed, I always thought the same too....figured more the better. Good to know if I want to remove it down the road I can, but as of now it's not hurting anything so i'll keep it in place (good breeding ground for my pods!

 

[jda]

They are biofilter but also condominium flats for other life. If they are porous and water is getting into the center, then they could have anoxic bacteria doing some work. They might not. Hard to know. If your no3 level rises, then the ceramic media did likely have some anoxic bacteria turning no3 into N gas.

Looking at the tank, you likely have more things consuming fish waste directly than needs to enter the nitrogen cycle. Your ammonia oxidizing bacteria levels are not likely all that high with so many direct consumers, but nobody could even guess at the anaerobic side.

More rock usually is better, but if you are just worried about one small piece of an ecosystem like processing ammonia, then you are missing a larger picture of places for other sorts of bacteria to live that corals could then catch in their slime coats, more places for worms, pods, starfish to hang and feed, etc.

 

[BigFig]

right now someone is looking up a meme to describe a crazy person he he


as if removing -bacteria- from a bio system won’t lower the filtration ability….


it won’t, it doesn’t, here’s sixty pages of us using the new rules for real reef tank work:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

in that thread in several jobs we removed 100% of the extra surface area from established reef tanks so we can move homes or upgrade / change tanks, leaving only some or all of the original rockwork (keeping the same fish load) and not one tank died

not one time did a calibrated seneye show a loss of biofilter

why is that


because to drive a car down the highway I need only four tires.


if someone sells me a dually and I remove the two extra back tires I can still drive down the freeway


bioballs, ceramic spheres, bio matrix, reef tank sand, and about 70% of people’s live rock are just two extra tires attached to the reef vehicle. For the bioloads we carry, even in lots of fish setups, thirty percent of the rock we use is still more than the system needs. So this means in all of reefing, all of it per the thread above, if we just keep some or all of the original live rock in the display we are free to do what we want with reef tanks and all the filtration surface area we were trained to use (you can remove it without harm)


old cycling science removes options of cleaning, handling and reef care by supplanting in concern over bacteria


new cycling science adds new options to reefing care, handling and procedure by instilling complete confidence in bacteria even where numbers are reduced. New cycling science knows to factor surface area and placement in reef jobs



Casper this is yet another bucket experiment you can do with a calibrated seneye. Set up a skip cycle bucket reef with fish in it, bioballs in a filter hooked to it, and get an nh3 baseline going from the seneye


pull off the bioballs filter and see if the nh3 levels change

then start pulling out rocks and see how many have to be removed before the fish bioload can’t be carried. I predict a mere 10% of the original rock structure still carries the whole system if the rocks are in the display area right where the fish are

I just proved you wrong. After removing 40 lbs of live rock from my sump, (180 lbs sitting in the display) Nitrates shot up from remaining stable at 6 for months, to 11 in one week. Nothing else changed. That is a measurable change.

 

[brandon429]

Wow that’s really consequential I hope the reef survives a small nitrate rise.


I’m sure dislodging a bunch of detritus during the move and putting it into suspension didn’t factor.

 

[BigFig]

Wow that’s really consequential I hope the reef survives a small nitrate rise.

Well, seeing as you seemed like such an authority and matter of fact with your experience, I thought I'd share some measurable change with you.

 

[BigFig]

Wow that’s really consequential I hope the reef survives a small nitrate rise.


I’m sure dislodging a bunch of detritus during the move and putting it into suspension didn’t factor.

I'm certain dislodging detritus didn't factor, as the removal happened 6 days ago. Not trying to hurt your feelings. Just hoping you understand that your experience, or mine for that matter, isn't going to be universal.

 

[esquare]

I've got a bag of ceramic bio balls that came with my eShopps Deskmate in the rear chamber of the tank. Been in there for 10 months now, and the tank is doing great. Will I need to remove them at some point, or will it be just like live rock and I can leave them in there.

In all my other tanks I've only ever used live rock and rock rubble, so wanted to make sure I can keep them in there.

Thank you!

Tank in it's current form:

Rear Chamber:

On another note, that's a cool looking tank. Is the orange color a lighting effect or orange acrylic?