Bio Balls!

[Telford]

Use them, don't use them. What's the consensus?

[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. :)

[Lance]

Don't use them.

[justinl]

nitrate trap imo. They can be used but the problem is that most people are too lazy or forgetful to rinse them down every month or so. Only if you let all that detritus build does it become a nitrate factory. People often replace bioballs with LR rubble, abuot ping pong to golf ball size; I am a fan of the LR rubble.

[Telford]

From everything else i've read it appears to be a good idea to get rid of them. Especially since i have a good amount of live rock in my system. How fast can i taken em out? 1/4 of them at a time each week sound reasonable?

[justinl]

sounds reasonable to me. don't go any faster than that thuogh. Will you replace with something else like LR rubble or just leave the chamber empty?

[Telford]

I'll put some live rock rubble in there but probably not too much, space in pretty limited. I'm working on building a new, bigger sump...

[Black Phantom]

I think bio balls are like everything in this hobby. If you don't moniter and take care of things you will have problems. Keep them clean, do your regular water changes and look after your tank, all will be fine. I use them in my cannister for my 50 cube with no problems.

[Whatigot]

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]

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.