Should I remove my bio balls?

[tyler1503]

Hello everyone!
I'm in a funny situation with my new sump. It came with a whole heap of bio balls, which I know I should stay away from because they can cause nitrate and phosphate issues. But my problem is, what other type of biological filtration can I use in the sump?
I'm not adding a lot of rock to the display and plan on only a few fish, but they're relative large fish so I think I need extra biological filtration. Live rock is out of the question as the only place I can put it in the sump is on a glass pane that I don't think will support the weight.

 

[mike007]

If you are not housing corals you can use the bioballs.

 

[Frag freak]

+1... I would pull them out.

 

[ultimatemj]

I replaced my bioballs with Seachem pond matrixing my nitrates are falling steadily.

 

[jon68951]

I have an empty sump. Never had anything in there but carbon and a skimmer

 

[tyler1503]

I want to take them out and I normally would, but then I have next to no biological filtration. I'm only adding about 30 pounds of rock to the tank and some large messy eaters, so I don't know if 30 pounds will cope with the bioload.
I'm planning on adding only the few LPS that I already have because I also have a hungry puffer. Maybe some euphyllia down the track if the puffer behaves himself.
Does anyone have any suggestions/substitutes? Remembering live rock is too heavy and may crack the pane of glass it sits on.

 

[JVI90gREEF]

I removed my bio balls and replaced it with LR rubble.

 

[ryecoon]

That sump is specifically made for Bio-Balls I would keep it in but just replace it when nitrates creep up.

 

[Waters]

I would also just leave them in.....they can only really become an issue in a reef tank where the nitrates need to be kept lower. I would just monitor your water and adjust your water changes to keep them manageable. Those bio balls should provide plenty of biological filtration in a fish only tank.

 

[mfinn]

If you are not housing corals you can use the bioballs.

I agree. The bio balls are a excellent source of filtration for fish only.

But as soon as you decide to try corals, then it's live rock time.

 

[ultimatemj]

I'm not associated with Seachem, nor a "fanboy", but if you haven't googled Seachem. Pond Matrix yet take a look.

Orders of magnitude more surface area for aerobic bacteria growth, plus support the anaerobic bacteria turning nitrates into nitrogen keeps it from being a "nitrate factory" like the plastic media.

My FOWLR (with Bioballs) had nitrates 120+ and the only thing I've done is swap out the BB with Matrix, seeded with Stability, and maintained a regular water change schedule. My nitrates dropped in 2 months to somewhere between 10 and 20 and are still dropping :bigsmile:

 

[Bradsreeeftank]

I would leave them like i did, my tank was going fine with bio-balls and then when people said to remove them, i did and my water qaulity rapidly declined. Make sure people who are saying remove them used bio balls before instead of them just going off of what others are saying..

 

[FLipp]

i had a friend that had bad experiences w it, i would pull them out but just IMO.

 

[ryecoon]

The way that sump is designed requires the bio-balls inside it. you can try taking them out and replace it filled with Rubble Rock but your best bet is to sell that sump and get a Refugium.

 

[bearjohnson]

You really don't need them. Maintain your water change schedule, add enough live rock in relation to the size of the tank and you'll do absolutely fine without them.

 

[ryecoon]

IME with this. Once you have established your tank and remove ALL the bio-balls (Just like any other equipment) will rapidly change your parameters. Just like anything else you should make changes slowly to your tank. So if your going to start with bio-balls, start with it and if your going to do rubble rock start with that and stick to one.

 

[Christopher Aslett]

Polypropylene cannot cause phosphate issues. Recent evidence suggests that there are so many nitrifying bacteria in water that ammonium/ammonia and nitrite most likely becomes nitrate before it has chance to percolate into microaerobic denitrifying zones. I precis your bioballs are great for degas/regas which will encourage a buoyant ORP and high DO. With a dry trickle filter you are very unlikely to see cyanobacteria, ever! Put an updraft of air through them and you have an evaporative chiller. Win, Win, Win. If you are concerned about notions of nitrate machines, then kill it off every week buy pouring fresh R/O onto it and leaving it for 10 minutes. Then restart.