why are the bioballs bad???

[kory taylor]

a friend of mine that knows alot about reefing told me that it was bad to leave the bio balls in the wet dry filter(btw are these any good? why why not?) why is this? i mean dont they filter out the bad stuff>?>?

thanks alot
-Kory

[theatrus]

They're a very good surface for nitrfying bacteria to live on. The problem is they're not a very good surface for de-nitrating bacteria to live on, and get "dirty" relatively easily which can cause nitrate buildup in reef systems.

[markandkristen]

Kory
if you have time check out the reef keeping tank of the months. these systems are usually some of the best. and i have yet to see a full blown reef on thier that has the bio balls. i took mine out of my sump.

i personally just use a sock filter, live rock and a euroreef skimmer.
fish only systems can run with them but not recommended for reef.

[outy]

kory

at this point you need to read up and learn the hobby, its all good.

there are threads here as well as some basic reading you need to do on the home page so you have a foundation to build upon

read up learn and hang out. get back to the home page and look left

[Sk8r]

When you look at live sand, you'll see nitrogen bubbles rising from time to time: this is gas that is the end product of nitrate being broken all the way down and eliminated from the tank by the sandbed and rock. The bioballs can't do this final step. Worse, every time you clean the filter, it pours more 'food' than the sandbed is used to getting onto the sandbed, which grows more bacteria to handle it---then your filter goes back into full operation and steals the 'food' back---and the sand bacteria have a dieoff as they all starve. It's a bad cycle to have going, constant up and down of capability. If you rely only on the sand, it steadies down and does the same job every day with no cleaning.

[kory taylor]

thanks for all the help u guys!
kory

[six.line]

hey kory

[welcome]