bio balls

[redseven]

i have a tank with a bio balls compartments attach to the back. i think there is a name for these, any who, i heard that they are bad for saltwater, some called them nitrate collector. is this true? should i remove them? and if i remove them? what do i put in its place?

 

[jessesoto33]

Some say LR rubble (small pieces)

 

[MechaSamurai]

Bio-balls get a bad reputation because of people neglecting them. Do some more research or post a pic for a more informed response before you make any decisions.

 

[Sitkabluemoon]

I did a lot of research on this and decided to not go with bio balls because of the nitrate issue and because I go through periods where I can't give as much time to the tank as I would like to keep the balls clean. Instead, I built a refugium (25g) for a 125g tank with live rock, chaeto, deep live sand bed, skimmer, copepods and critters and made sure I have really good flow in the tank. Our tank is fish only with live rock and live sand right now and few livestock so the bioload is small and I don't have to worry about corals yet. Based on my research, that seemed the best option for me. We're also running several freshwater tanks from 20g to 125g with much larger bio loads and on those I'm running larger sponge filters in combination with larger hang on the back filters using crumbled lava rock combined with regular water changes and that is working out really well for me.

I found Robert Fenner's "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" and Michael Paletta's "The New Marine Aquarium" incredibly helpful on this subject. That, and this site:

http://www.melevsreef.com.

Good Luck!

 

[redseven]

thanks for the site sitka, found good information in there. now, about refugium, how would i acquire all these critters?

 

[Sitkabluemoon]

Chaeto is great and I spotted someone selling on Craigslist and got a nice bunch for $8. Copepods, shrimp, snails and other critters I got from saltwaterfish.com. They have good deals for new buyers on start up critters.