Bio Balls

[mksalt]

In another thread, I have some one telling me to remove the sponge and bio balls from my Biocube 29 because of nitrate problems. Isn’t the sponge, the bio balls, live rock, sand, just all forms of biological filtration? They seem to view the bio balls and live rock differently? Why would one cause more nitrates than the other?

[acrylic_300]

Good question. With the recent trend of starving tanks a little nitrate might not hurt. Seems everyone follows this way and that. I still have my balls...but I also have a denitrator. My tank will starve if I don't feed heavily.

[Percula9]

Bioballs only nitrify, where live rock and sand can both nitrify and denitrify.

[acrylic_300]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11082824#post11082824 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Percula9
Bioballs only nitrify, where live rock and sand can both nitrify and denitrify.

True, but I don't see how bio balls can become a "nitrate factory" as some people put it.

The tank can only produce nitrate if a food source is going in. The person feeding the tank creates the amount of nitrate. It just gets converted faster with more surface area.

[Boomer]

It is called proximity association acrylic. In LR and in SB the two bacteria are parked next to each other. The nitrate producers pass on the nitrate to the denitrators to convert NO3- to N2 gas which leaves into the atmosphere as a gas. In a Bioball set up, there is no proximity association, as a bioballs can not go into faculative anaerobic conditions where LR and SB can. So, the nitrate just accumulates in the water, as it is hard for that nitrate in the water to diffuse through the biofilm of the nitrators to get to the dentirators.

Thus , on the same note a bioball system is much less efficient in removing nitrate. In the end this lowers the population density of the nitrate converting bacteria on and in the LR and SB, so there is less conversion of nitrate to N2 gas, thus less denitrators in the LR and SB, so up goes the NO3 ina bioball systems.

[mksalt]

Sorry for prolonging this, but I have a BC 29 that I started 60 days ago with plenty of live rock and live sand, would leaving the bio balls in chamber two become a negative? I’m keeping some soft coral, a few fish and a cleanup crew.

[bertoni]

Maybe. You could just leave them alone until a problem crops up. Fish aren't affected by nitrate in the levels I've seen register in tanks, and soft corals don't seem to mind much, either.

[acrylic_300]

Thanks for clearing up the proximity thing...I had never thought of it that way. Can the rock also pass it on to algae?

A small bio-ball chamber works for me, but I have macro algae, 700lbs of live rock, 2 inches of crushed coral substrate, and a denitrator.

FWIW my Nitrate reads 0 on an API test kit.

I guess it goes back to that old saying about "what works for your tank".

[Boomer]

If you have enough macro NO3 should not be an issue. And yes they can pass it on to the algae. Matter of act some of these algae's have these biofilms right on the "stems" and "leaves". And is some cases there is no proximity just the denitrators which can pull the NO3 right out of the water ( and NO do not compare this to a plastic bioball, it is like comparing apples and oranges :) )

[bertoni]

Macroalgae can absorb a lot of nutrients. So can a denitrator.