Age Old Question that I have never been able to grasp..

[TitanTV]

Hey All,

I have been in the hobby for years but one thing I haven't really tested nor been able to understand is why do bioballs and biowheels cause elevated nitrates? I have bascially just followed others advice on the subject as it seems universal. But if anyone can help me understand that would be great.

Bacteria (the good guys) covert Ammonia to Nitrite..Then Nitrite to Nitrate.. So, for there to be Nitrate there must have been Nitrite to start with (which we'd prefer not to have). So for sake of argument lets say 1 Nitrite turns into 1 Nitrate. I assume the bioballs themself for some reason do not turn 1 Nitrite into 2 Nitrates?? So how can Nitrate increase without Nitrite increasing?

The main answer I saw to this was that the bioballs collect uneatten food and stuff and become a trap. I do not buy this at all. If a persons tank cleaning habits are such they let the bioballs just loaded with junk the same junk would be stuck on their live rock or something anyhow.

Any answers would be great ;-)

Chris

[evsalty]

The water that goes over bio balls is trickled and has no real force to help keep things from getting trapped. Your LR should have flow hitting it from many directions that will help to keep it cleaner. Now if you have any dead spots within the rock structures then you will see the same build up there. But unlike the bio ball section you have critters that will help to either eat the build up or at least help stir it up so that it can get into the water column and then into the filtration. If you are using a filter sock then hopefully you are cleaning it often so that it does not get clogged and let stuff out and on into the bio balls. IMHO it is the lack of frequent cleaning of these items that allows for the build up and thus the term nitrAte factory.

[dan223]

I believe nitrate is disolved in the water, not sitting in chunks trapped in bioballs. If something is a nitrate factory that should be a good thing because its breaking down waste thats already present, not creating it. Sure it collect detritus but I dont believe thats as harmfull as people think and may help support micro fauna.

[Mr. Brooks]

The reason bioballs are considered bad is mainly because they do their job too well. They convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. The problem is that they do nothing to convert nitrate to nitrogen. When live rock is used as filtration, there are places nearby for bacteria to grow and help convert the nitrate to nitrogen. That and having a detritus trap of any kind is a bad idea.

[evsalty]

I believe nitrate is disolved in the water, not sitting in chunks trapped in bioballs. If something is a nitrate factory that should be a good thing because its breaking down waste thats already present, not creating it. Sure it collect detritus but I dont believe thats as harmfull as people think and may help support micro fauna.

As the waste (detritus) breaks down it turns into ammonia. Then aerobic bacteria breaks down the ammonia into nitrIte and then into nitrAtes. At that point the bio balls are not able to harbo anaerobic bacteria so that is the end of there job. The more waste that is trapped in the bio balls the faster they produce nitrAtes.

[TitanTV]

I would assume that the fastest possible change from Ammonia to Nitrate is what we would want. I agree 100% that bioballs are not to be used in place of Rock..

[KafudaFish]

RHF proposed that the distance between the aerobic and the anaerobic bacteria was too great to handle the system's demands and over time the system would become unbalanced thus testing for higher levels.