I Switched Over to 100% Bio-Balls and Could Not Be Happier!
I've been a silent lurker on this and many other salt water aquarium forums for years, but I'm the type that spends almost every day reading discussion threads, but never signs up for an account or posts anything.
For some reason, I felt compelled to finally create an account and post something. And the only reason why is because my actual experience seems to be so different from what I've seen discussed in numerous threads and forums throughout the years.
The basic topic revolves around the use of bio-balls, and in my specific case, switching over to "100%" bio-balls. I put "100%" in quotes because, there is a caveat to this which I will explain later.
I have a 90 gallon uniquarium (70 gallon DT and 20 gallon built-in sump). My stocking is pretty heavy as I have 1 Bartlett Anthias, 1 Lawnmower Blenny, 1 Royal Gramma, 2 False Percula Clowns, 1 Yellow Pearly Jawfish, 1 Neon Goby, 1 Red Tail Tarmarin Wrasse, 1 Green Mandarin Dragonet, 1 firefish dartfish, 1 purple firefish dartfish, 1 Bengai Cardinal, 3 medium-sized hermit crabs, and 6 small-sized hermit crabs.
I’m a heavy feeder, and feed strictly frozen food (mysis, enriched brine, and bloodworms) pretty much everyday. Yes, I usually feed 2-3 cubes a day.
I have 100+ lbs. of live rock (various original sources & types: south seas base, various type of dried coral, lava rock, coral pumice, stuff I picked up from the beach, live rock from the fish store, etc.) and 100+ lbs. of live sand 3-5 inches deep.
Yes, over the past year+, I went from running 2 protein skimmers, sponge filters, 2 types of filter floss, carbon, bio-balls, and LR, basically down to just bio-balls and nothing else except the LR in my display tank.
I didn't all of a sudden remove everything, but did this over the course of a year. The first to go was reducing my protein skimmers from 2 down to 1, then to none. Then stopped using carbon and reduced my filter floss from a lot of 2 different types to essentially none (just a very small scrap remains to break the force of the splashing water coming from my external chiller). After essentially everything was gone from my sump except the bio-balls, I essentially doubled the amount of bio balls and stuffed every compartment available in my Uniquarium’s sump to the max with additional bio-balls. Roughly 14 gallons worth of bio-balls.
My flow is a standard 10x with the return pump plus an additional 10x when my 2 additional power heads go on controlled by the Wavemaster controller.
So I know everyone’s setup is different, but this has been the best configuration I have tinkered with so far that fits my specific situation.
I know some will say that bio-balls are good for fish only aquariums or heavy stocking and feeding, which is essentially what I have. Others will say that bio-balls are great but they are “nitrate factories”. This seems to be true in many studies, backed up by scientific theory, and practice, but in my specific case, my nitrates are strangely lower now (<5) with my current configuration compared to my previous ones. I’m not sure why, but I have some theories.
Others will say that LR is superior to bio-balls in that in can house anaerobic bacteria which can break down nitrates which bio-balls cannot, so it is best to replace the bio-balls in the sump with LR instead. Unfortunately, for me, LR in the sump wasn’t as efficient at the first 2 stages of the biological filtration process as bio-balls, and plus I already had 100+ lbs. of various types of LR in my DT.
I’ve seen debates on “Bio-balls or LR?”. It seems the debate is always either or and not both. Some say that having bioballs will out compete the aerobic bacteria from colonizing the LR thus making the LR not only less efficient with its aerobic bacteria, but also its anaerobic bacteria because the anaerobic bacteria work best when colonized in live rock under layers on aerobic bacteria.
Anyways, I’m not sure why, but that doesn’t seem to be the problem in my case. I’m not sure if it is because I have so much live rock with so many various types, densities, purousnesses, etc. that I was lucky enough to stumble on the magic balance?
I've been a silent lurker on this and many other salt water aquarium forums for years, but I'm the type that spends almost every day reading discussion threads, but never signs up for an account or posts anything.
For some reason, I felt compelled to finally create an account and post something. And the only reason why is because my actual experience seems to be so different from what I've seen discussed in numerous threads and forums throughout the years.
The basic topic revolves around the use of bio-balls, and in my specific case, switching over to "100%" bio-balls. I put "100%" in quotes because, there is a caveat to this which I will explain later.
I have a 90 gallon uniquarium (70 gallon DT and 20 gallon built-in sump). My stocking is pretty heavy as I have 1 Bartlett Anthias, 1 Lawnmower Blenny, 1 Royal Gramma, 2 False Percula Clowns, 1 Yellow Pearly Jawfish, 1 Neon Goby, 1 Red Tail Tarmarin Wrasse, 1 Green Mandarin Dragonet, 1 firefish dartfish, 1 purple firefish dartfish, 1 Bengai Cardinal, 3 medium-sized hermit crabs, and 6 small-sized hermit crabs.
I’m a heavy feeder, and feed strictly frozen food (mysis, enriched brine, and bloodworms) pretty much everyday. Yes, I usually feed 2-3 cubes a day.
I have 100+ lbs. of live rock (various original sources & types: south seas base, various type of dried coral, lava rock, coral pumice, stuff I picked up from the beach, live rock from the fish store, etc.) and 100+ lbs. of live sand 3-5 inches deep.
Yes, over the past year+, I went from running 2 protein skimmers, sponge filters, 2 types of filter floss, carbon, bio-balls, and LR, basically down to just bio-balls and nothing else except the LR in my display tank.
I didn't all of a sudden remove everything, but did this over the course of a year. The first to go was reducing my protein skimmers from 2 down to 1, then to none. Then stopped using carbon and reduced my filter floss from a lot of 2 different types to essentially none (just a very small scrap remains to break the force of the splashing water coming from my external chiller). After essentially everything was gone from my sump except the bio-balls, I essentially doubled the amount of bio balls and stuffed every compartment available in my Uniquarium’s sump to the max with additional bio-balls. Roughly 14 gallons worth of bio-balls.
My flow is a standard 10x with the return pump plus an additional 10x when my 2 additional power heads go on controlled by the Wavemaster controller.
So I know everyone’s setup is different, but this has been the best configuration I have tinkered with so far that fits my specific situation.
I know some will say that bio-balls are good for fish only aquariums or heavy stocking and feeding, which is essentially what I have. Others will say that bio-balls are great but they are “nitrate factories”. This seems to be true in many studies, backed up by scientific theory, and practice, but in my specific case, my nitrates are strangely lower now (<5) with my current configuration compared to my previous ones. I’m not sure why, but I have some theories.
Others will say that LR is superior to bio-balls in that in can house anaerobic bacteria which can break down nitrates which bio-balls cannot, so it is best to replace the bio-balls in the sump with LR instead. Unfortunately, for me, LR in the sump wasn’t as efficient at the first 2 stages of the biological filtration process as bio-balls, and plus I already had 100+ lbs. of various types of LR in my DT.
I’ve seen debates on “Bio-balls or LR?”. It seems the debate is always either or and not both. Some say that having bioballs will out compete the aerobic bacteria from colonizing the LR thus making the LR not only less efficient with its aerobic bacteria, but also its anaerobic bacteria because the anaerobic bacteria work best when colonized in live rock under layers on aerobic bacteria.
Anyways, I’m not sure why, but that doesn’t seem to be the problem in my case. I’m not sure if it is because I have so much live rock with so many various types, densities, purousnesses, etc. that I was lucky enough to stumble on the magic balance?
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