Why are bioballs bad?

[dafunkyman]

Being new to the hobby, these bioballs which increased surface area and accumulate beneficial bacteria sounded great. But since I have been on RC many people say that bioballs are nitrate factories and should be either taken out or replaced with LR. I did some research and I read that the only reason they are nitrate factories is because the catch waste that floats in the water. I also read that having a mechanical filter before the bioballs will prevent anything in the water from reaching and getting caught in bioballs which would make the bioballs effective. So which is it? Are they effective with a mechanical filter or are they just plain bad?

[Chuck H.]

From my understanding (I'm no expert): they can be traps for debris/detritus in all of their nooks and crannies, but like you mentioned a good mechanical pre-filter can assist with this. They are also very efficient, due to surface area being colonized by beneficial bacteria, of converting ammonia and nitrite into nitrate. But that is the problem...the bacteria that colonizes bio-balls, ceramic rings, bio-wheels, etc. is all aerobic- they love oxygen and they do produce nitrate as the end result of their labor. Live Rock on the other hand, the preferred method for biological filtration in our reef tanks, house different bacteria deep within it that is anaerobic - not needing oxygen - and actually feeds on nitrate, thus helping us keep nitrates low. LR is the total package...aerobic bacteria on the outside, anaerobic bacteria inside, and bio-balls are not. However, with that being said, I have a Tidepool II wet-dry with a large bio-wheel for my Undy and it is a good filter for that purpose and my nitrate is manageable.

[DoubleM 10]

IMO the reason people say bio balls are bad is because they hear horror stories about people having them and not taking care of the properly. then they become nitrate factories

matt

[suds1421]

Bioballs are great at housing bacteria but they are also great at catching "stuff" if you let the stuff get to them. If you are going to use them be sure to use good particulate filters before them.

[Sk8r]

NObody's hit the real reason yet: your sandbed can process waste all the way past nitrate to nitrogen gas and release it harmlessly to the atmosphere. Bioballs don't have the bacterial variety and stop at nitrate, which is not good. You will always have nitrate excess if you have bioballs, and corals in particularly don't thrive with nitrate; fish aren't that happy with it, for that matter, though their tolerance (meaning they don't die of it) is higher.
To SAFELY remove bioballs, withdraw 3 every 2 days, testing often. If you start to see a nitrate spike, skip a remove and let the tank grow more bacteria.

[karsseboom]

yeah i guess bio balls are ok for a fish olny tank but if you plan to keep anything else i would drop the bio balls fast there very old tech from like the 80s..lol

[Frogmanx82]

If you start to see a nitrate spike, skip a remove and let the tank grow more bacteria.

I think sk8r means to be concerned with an ammonia or nitrite spike. Removing bioballs will always work to lower the nitrates.

The main issue is you want ammonia reducing bacteria in a low flow environment, like inside live rock, so that when nitrates are produced, they can be converted by bacteria that can only be found in a reduced oxygen environment. Bioballs will just release the nitrates into the water column.

Bioballs are great for freshwater fish where the bioload is typically much higher and you really can't treat the ammonia load any other way. Also freshwater fish are much less disturbed by nitrate levels.

[skanderson]

its funny how they are criticized as nitrate factories when that is exactly what they are designed to be. the trouble is that most people with reefs keep low nitrate lvls for good coloration of sps corals and you need something to remove nitrates. if you use a sandbed or liverock for nitification they will also, if properly set up, remove siginificant amounts of nitrates

[Sk8r]

Thank you, Frogman, it's been a long day...

[dafunkyman]

So Sk8r and Frogman, what y'all are saying is that the bioballs do good by converting NH4 to NO2 and to NO3 but it stops there. Then my rock is supposed to give off gas but the bioballs are to efficient and produce the NO3 too fast where my LR and sandbed can only handle so much at one time so an excess of No3 is in my water. Right? Thanks for all the help so far everyone.

[MatthewAD]

Maybe read up on the nitrogen cycle, there are a lot of good write ups on it.

Ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrate, these bacteria do this under aerobic conditions (oxygen).

Nitrate -> Nitrogen gas (gets rid of nitrate) is done by bacteria under anaerobic conditions (without oxygen).

So live rock, deep sand bed, coil denitrators ect have bacteria in low flow areas that first do the aerobic reactions then as they use up the oxygen it allows anaerobic bacteria to rid of nitrate.

Bioballs were designed for ONLY the aerobic reactions which they do efficiently, they do not accumulate the best bacteria, they miss the boat on getting rid of nitrate, and actually can slow down your denitrators in your system, they have no place in a reef tank.

[Percula9]

Bioballs will always produce nitrate whether they have detritus or not. They don't have the ability to denitrify. The reason you want to prevent detritus from building is to prevent heterotrphic bacteria from growing and breaking down the detritus into other deleterious chemicals.