Why remove bio-balls?

[Anonymous]

Is there any proven reason to do this?

Everyone says bio-balls are bad because they cause nitrates to buils up.

Even the 12 gallon JBJ nano cube instructions say "for reef tanks, remove bio balls to prevent nitrate buils up."

In my 75 gallon, I have never had nitrates build up...never. I have almost unreadable nitrate levels. Not only do I have bio balls in the wet dry/sump, but I have the over flow filled with bio-balls all the way to the top (this is so I can put filter fiber on top of them). I tried living without them, but they cut back on the gurgling noise.

I have never had a problem. I see no reason to remove mine.


I'm tempted to use them in the nano cube too...can't see why I wouldn't.

 

[Anonymous]

I was just saying to myself last night..."self, you should put bioballs in your overflow to cut back on the noise."

I am using a sponge right now, but it has clogged and overflowed the tank twice now. Not real happy with it at the moment. I guess they would trap detrius and cause the nitrates to go up. Maybe. I was going to rinse them off every so often, not using them for the bio part, just for the quite part.

 

[anemonelover]

I wondered the same thing myself. Good question.

 

[Amphiprionocellaris]

The problem comes mainly with very heavily stocked tanks. In these situations, the bio-balls are extremely effective, but the anaerobic denitrification is still very slow. In cases such as these, the bio-balls perform their job too well, because they reduce ammonia/-ium to nitrate faster than the anaerobic processes can turn nitrate into free nitrogen. This in turn leads to a buildup of nitrate, because it's being produced faster than it's being used.
In normally-stocked tanks in which the anaerobic process can "keep up" with waste production, it's not really an issue. However, many nano tanks are overstocked, which might be why JBJ gives a blanket recommendation to remove the bio-balls.

 

[Anonymous]

I was just saying to myself last night..."self, you should put bioballs in your overflow to cut back on the noise."

I am using a sponge right now, but it has clogged and overflowed the tank twice now. Not real happy with it at the moment. I guess they would trap detrius and cause the nitrates to go up. Maybe. I was going to rinse them off every so often, not using them for the bio part, just for the quite part.

I've never cleaned mine...2 years and no problems.

I put some filter fiber on top of them to catch detritus, but since I get lazy and forget to change it, I leave a space toward the back (away from the water fall...if that makes sense) so that if the fiber gets clogged, water will have a place to go and not overflow the tank.

 

[Anonymous]

The problem comes mainly with very heavily stocked tanks. In these situations, the bio-balls are extremely effective, but the anaerobic denitrification is still very slow. In cases such as these, the bio-balls perform their job too well, because they reduce ammonia/-ium to nitrate faster than the anaerobic processes can turn nitrate into free nitrogen. This in turn leads to a buildup of nitrate, because it's being produced faster than it's being used.
In normally-stocked tanks in which the anaerobic process can "keep up" with waste production, it's not really an issue. However, many nano tanks are overstocked, which might be why JBJ gives a blanket recommendation to remove the bio-balls.

That makes some sense. It works with my situation since my 75 is very lightly stocked.

However, by slowing down the process of turning Ammonia into Nitrate, aren't you just allowing more of the chemicals to remain as ammonia and nitrite, which are much more toxic than nitrate? So wouldn't you want to turn it all into nitrate as quickly as possible?

 

[Amphiprionocellaris]

However, by slowing down the process of turning Ammonia into Nitrate, aren't you just allowing more of the chemicals to remain as ammonia and nitrite, which are much more toxic than nitrate? So wouldn't you want to turn it all into nitrate as quickly as possible?

Yes and no. You are allowing more nitrogen to remain as ammonia/-ium and nitrite. However, in most cases these chemicals are limiting reactants in the whole cycle. That is, any ammonia/-ium and nitrite produced will be used up by bacteria (and other things) before it can cause harm to livestock. In heavily stocked tanks, though, that is usually not the case; so, in heavily stocked tanks it might be better to have bio-balls to reduce ammonia/nitrite to nitrate and accept the fact that low to zero nitrate levels will take more work.
One more reason not to overstock tanks...

 

[Nautilus1]

I was just saying to myself last night..."self, you should put bioballs in your overflow to cut back on the noise."

I am using a sponge right now, but it has clogged and overflowed the tank twice now. Not real happy with it at the moment. I guess they would trap detrius and cause the nitrates to go up. Maybe. I was going to rinse them off every so often, not using them for the bio part, just for the quite part.

An overflow full of bioballs is not enough to produce a nitrate factory

 

[cjsrch]

"In these situations, the bio-balls are extremely effective, but the anaerobic denitrification is still very slow."
anerobic is the same with out with out the bio balls... ( unless you put more lr in the bio balls place but even then its still a wetdry unless you keep them compleatly submerged.)

bioballs help chill your tank ^^

 

[Anonymous]

"In these situations, the bio-balls are extremely effective, but the anaerobic denitrification is still very slow."
anerobic is the same with out with out the bio balls... ( unless you put more lr in the bio balls place but even then its still a wetdry unless you keep them compleatly submerged.)

bioballs help chill your tank ^^

I have bio balls in the wet dry, but I also have rock in there...some rock is submerged totally and some of it is in the trickle area with the bio balls.

I don't know why I set it up that way...it was too may years and too many beers ago to remember. But it works so far.