Bio-Balls a necesity ??

Lost my blue balls a while ago. Algae free since!

 

i might be missing some key information about your system set up...but you dont get high nitrates from the result of using bioballs on a bare bottom tank. most likely you had high nitrates because of limited water changes, the bioballs were probably loaded with floc and detritus and it was probably a very slow flow so under your bioballs you probably had inches of detritus just rotting away and/or not enough anaerobic areas, like the middle of liverock and a deeper sand bed or deep refugium bed. you mentioned that you had limited live rock, that might be a cause for higher nitrates but the fundemental issue is water changes and denitrate zones.

the amount of nitrates you have in a given system is based on filtration and husbandry practices. The amount of bacteria needed to convert ammonia to nitrite then to nitrate is directly proportional to your bioload over time and is directly affected by husbandry practices, short term and long term.

you dont need bioballs in a system that has live rock(as long as you have enough live rock) because the live rock is the biological filter. in systems that you dont want live rock (numerous reasons & species dependent) you definately need some sort of biological surface area to grow the bacteria on.

In a properly managed tank with a VERY SMALL amount of animals, one could have enough biological filtration surface area on the tank walls, insides of pipes and sump walls to perform all the conversions. That being said most people dont want to look at just a couple of things. Most people stock their tanks quite heavily, hence the need for more efficient surface area and the need to have bio media or liverock. that is the only reason. some biomedia per cubic foot has a surface area of 82,ooo square feet (siporax) while other media per cubic foot has 160 square feet of surface area (bioballs) the difference is that the siporax has such small pores (more surface area) that is the reason i dont like it cause it clogs easily. If it clogs easily then it will trap detritus and be more maintenance. in a properly installed biological filter, 300 square feet of surface area can support 100 lbs of fish fed 35% protein daily. That equates too 2 cubic feet of bioballs. there are other issues that one would have to deal with but thats how efficient bio media can be.

The key is having the right vehicle to convert biological waste, vehicle being bio balls, kaldness media, siporax, liverock or many others, that and husbandry practices.

so long story short, most likely, in your bioball section, you basically created a large settling basin of you which probably never got cleaned...your nitrates dropped because you removed a bunch of detritus from your system that was choking your bioballs from performing properly and you also performed water changes. Getting rid of large portions of dead areas (bioload) in your system is one of the keys to success.
of course i could be wrong, been wrong before.

hope that helps

the denitrification issues is a whole other discussion...but definately is helped out by a deep sand bed, refugium and live rock.

 

Man I hope you had that posted somewhere and then repasted it. I bet you are a salesman. LOL

 

Point of the story is clean your dang Bioballs and you won't have an issue. I don't know much about your system, but I would have removed the bioballs slowly as some have mentioned already. GL with the fuge, they're AWESOME and you can keep sweet little critters in there as well

 

Fusion - incredibly helpful and informative I am now much clearer as to why I achieved the lower nitrates ( 10 years ago I didnt really care how I got it, I was just pleased to be there)
I had always done 10% per week - but this was taken by syphon from DT - hoovering the bare bottom - so yes I can well believe the part of the filter with the Bioballs in had far to much accumulated detrius in

 

Yes i removed all the BB at once .....the tank has only been up and running for a little over 1 month. There was enough BB to fill a 5 gallon bucket a little over 1/2 full. Now that I have room...I might add a small area with BB back in where my newly ( tonight ) installed 30 gallon fuge dumps back into the sump .....like 1/4 the amount I had.....I only have a few fish and lots of inverts currently, and not intending on adding any more until I get the ATO installed and everything settles down. All my parameters are good with the exception of my phosphates which are high...and working on that issue as we speak.

I have the LFS looking at my well water and testing to see if I can go DI water only, don't ask....he is explaining it to me tomorrow but he has set up several tanks like this and some water will qualify and some don't. but, it makes for no waste water and produces at a MUCH faster rate.

 

Nope.....marine biologist

 

I am stunned, no one (not even me) caught the fact that in your opening thread you never mentioned how long the tank had been running. Now, 3 pages later we learn it is 1 month old! There was the Nitrate issue. The tank is cycling. Now, you removed a substatial amount of what little bacteria base you had. In the future be as specific as you can and provide all the basics. Basic information should include; all water parameters(Calcium,Magnes ium,Alkalinity,Ph and Nitrate and Phosphate levels) along with Temp. of your tank and Sg (specific gravity).Size of tank and complete set up meaning, filter type (sump, canister etc.), if you use a skimmer,lighting (what type and total output)plus what type of lighting are you using and what is your lighting schedule (how long a period are your actinic and daylights on) and if you have fish only with live rock and if you keep corals. Also how long the tank has been up. I know some of this is in your bio but many bios don't contain this info. How many times has someone posted and then there is this list of postings addressing the above. If you give the most info you can to give us a good profile, it will cut down on response time and mis-diagnosis or answers that don't fit and we will all benefit.

 

I use bioballs but that is only because I have a temperate tank and the rock I have is not very porous, so I put the bioballs in to add some surface area. If you have a reef tank with live rock, you dont need them.

 

Im afraid that was a mistake to removed all the bio balls all at once, you basically may be starting your cycle all over again. Im new to reefing also but I do know we shouldnt make huge changes when a tank is newly established.

Goodluck and watch your parameters very carefully and I wouldn't add or change anything else until your reef is stable...