replacing bio balls with live-rock?

[Brett Banning]

so i was in a local reef store and in it, there was a running biocube tank with a built in wet-dry on the back that had living coral and fish in it. she had replaced the bio balls with live rocks. she told me that it is better than bio balls because it filters the water better but idk. i know biocubes are one of the best and simplest tanks you can buy but does this affect the tank in good way/bad way compared to bioballs? I've been thinking to try it on my wet-dry but I've been holding off on it. is this a smart idea or a wacko, dumb idea this lady had.

 

[Oscaror]

Check out marinepure's live rock blocks, they have one thats's 8x8x4 inches and is enough for a 150 gallon tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

so i was in a local reef store and in it, there was a running biocube tank with a built in wet-dry on the back that had living coral and fish in it. she had replaced the bio balls with live rocks. she told me that it is better than bio balls because it filters the water better but idk. i know biocubes are one of the best and simplest tanks you can buy but does this affect the tank in good way/bad way compared to bioballs? I've been thinking to try it on my wet-dry but I've been holding off on it. is this a smart idea or a wacko, dumb idea this lady had.

Unless you are going for a minimal live rock look, you can probably just leave out the bioballs out of a wet dry and not add anything back. Back in the day when wet dry's were common, many people did that.

 

[brianguz760]

I have a 60 gallon with 30 pounds of rock and counting and I left the bio balls in the canister filter. Its been up and running juat find for 7 months

 

[Elegance Coral]

Don't run bio media like bioballs or rubble rock, when you're running LR. The bio media robs bacteria from the LR, making the LR less efficient. Which is why most people that do this run into nitrate control issues.

 

[brianguz760]

Don't run bio media like bioballs or rubble rock, when you're running LR. The bio media robs bacteria from the LR, making the LR less efficient. Which is why most people that do this run into nitrate control issues.

Hey so I should take out the bio balls ? I only have 30 pounds of live rock in a 60 gallon. I was plnning to take out the bip balls once I had about 65 pounds of live rock

 

[Reab]

LR allows beneficial bacteria a place to live and hide while it collects waste that passes by, all bio balls and rubble rock provide is a trap for detritus. When you remove them do so slowly as you will then release some of this build up into your water column, which will affect your parameters, specifically nitrates. If you wish to run bio media or rubble, you should make sure there is sufficient flow as to avoid the build up of detritus