Bio Balls!

[Whatigot]

Originally Posted by diana

really depends on your setup. For the reef i would tend to lean towards not using them b/c they are good at trapping debris and thus causing nitrates. Although if you keep them really clean then i can't see a reason not to. Imo if you have enough healthy live rock you really don't need them.

+1

The offshoot of this is that if you DO use bioballs and are very good at cleaning them, you can actually really reduce potential nitrates, almost like a human powered skimmer.

[justinl]

i dunno... clean them too often, and I can see you limiting the bacterial growth.. which would defeat the purpose of the things in the first place. There's a fine line.

[Whatigot]

Originally Posted by justinl

i dunno... clean them too often, and I can see you limiting the bacterial growth.. which would defeat the purpose of the things in the first place. There's a fine line.

This is assuming that the only thing you have for dentrification is bioballs, I.E, if you had LR in your tank, the loss of bacteria would be negligible.
Noone says you have to clean them all at once either.
The line is only as fine as you make it.