Bio balls should I get rid of them?

[Alegae]

I have recently purchased a 14g biocube and I have been reading reviews about the bio balls. Should I keep them or replace them? I have 14lbs of Live rock in there now. It has only been cycling for 4 days and I'm planning on having coral, clean up crew, and small fish in it in the end. Any advice? and the cheapest way would be awesome too because I am new to the hobby.

Thanks!

[cloak]

Yeah, just get rid of them. The rock be your primary biological filter.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/feature/index.php

[homer1475]

Dump the bioballs, and get a media rack(filter floss, purigen, chemipure, carbon, etc, etc.) for chemical filtration. Also if your 14 has the sponge in the little compartment between the middle and last chamber, dump that too, its a nitrate factory waiting to happen.

All your biological filtration takes place within your rock and sand. That's the whole reason behind cycling your tank. To build up the bacteria to handle your bioload.

[BigCountry74]

x2 dump them. the 14lbs rock is plenty

[chefbill]

Also if your 14 has the sponge in the little compartment between the middle and last chamber, dump that too, its a nitrate factory waiting to happen.


A little package of Chemipure or Phosban fits perfectly there...just saying.

[homer1475]

A little package of Chemipure or Phosban fits perfectly there...just saying.

Only problem I found with putting it in that location, it tends to float up and out of that spot, mine always ended up floating in the middle chamber, or floating in the last.

With that said, I did run it that way until I got the media basket, but had to put a piece of rubble rock on top of it to hold it down.

[chefbill]

I did the exact same thing

[Kenpo guy]

Everything I've read about bio balls has been bad. Word is they just become a nitrate factory. I ditched the ones that came with my filter and replaced with ceramic rings which I will also ditch if I start having problems. You dont need them, use Chemi-pure if you can.

[BigCountry74]

it's not that they are bad. they are just a lot of maintenance.