How to clean Bio Balls

[Snappy]

Bio balls are old technology that are now known to cause issues down the road. They started using them to create extra surface area for bacteria to grow that will help as a filter. It is now known that you are better off with just good quality live rock which does the same thing without the issues.

[Palmer]

I am a newb still so take what I say with a grain of salt... I know in fish farming applications where there are lots of fish in a small area (even saltwater) the wet dry (bio balls/screens etc) principles are still considered a useful and practical form of biological filtration.

As a new reefer my take on it is that a small reef tank has significantly different requirements and often is "smaller" so less tolerance for waste buildup if your filter media gets gooey.

I still use bio balls for my fresh water cichlid setup and if I ever do a fowler I will probably still use them in addition to live rock. Even in my Cichlid tank I rinse the media on occasion to take out detridice that the floss doesnt catch.

FWIW

Palmer

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Palmer

I am a newb still so take what I say with a grain of salt... I know in fish farming applications where there are lots of fish in a small area (even saltwater) the wet dry (bio balls/screens etc) principles are still considered a useful and practical form of biological filtration.


Palmer

This is absolutely true for fish farming, or even a heavily stock fish tank. But a reef is less tolerant to the nitrate produced by these, where fish basically don't care (within reason).
They'll also do nothing (good) for any algae issues you might have.

[Palmer]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

This is absolutely true for fish farming, or even a heavily stock fish tank. But a reef is less tolerant to the nitrate produced by these, where fish basically don't care (within reason).
They'll also do nothing (good) for any algae issues you might have.

"As a new reefer my take on it is that a small reef tank has significantly different requirements and often is "smaller" so less tolerance for waste buildup if your filter media gets gooey."

Right thats why I also dont use them in my reef tank either. Theoretically speaking if you could keep the crap out of the media with mechanical filtration I do not think it would be an issue but for the hobbyist its just not practical.

Palmer

[Midway]

Thanks very much for all the advices guys!!! Well those bio-balls are going in my garage now...lol

Manny

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Snappy

Bio balls are old technology that are now known to cause issues down the road. They started using them to create extra surface area for bacteria to grow that will help as a filter. It is now known that you are better off with just good quality live rock which does the same thing without the issues.

Greg, thanks for a real answer