Bio Ball IN or OUT

[natematzke]

I am putting a 55 gal sump together ??? Well working on it. The question is (I look at alot of plans and on a lot of them have the bioball under water and some are not under the water at all. What is the best way ? have some or none under the water line in the sump.?/ I plan on putting one of those Refugums ya one of those things (cepepod home ) I didnt say I could spell

 

[trigger11]

My vote would be to toss the bio balls completely. They require too much maintenance for my taste. Put some live rock in it's place. The pods like to have more rock anyways to reproduce so it works out better all the way around. But of course this is just my opinion.

 

[gmwilk]

what about seachems matrix instead of the balls? anyone have good luck with the stuff?

 

[flcandy]

I dont know I have the Bio Balls and know that they have to be cleaned often.
Honestly you can add the LR to the base of the SUMP and leave them in as well, all depends on the model you have.

 

[mrextc]

i have bio balls and i believe that it has caused my nitrates to go way up!!! so i'm in the process of removing them all together and replacing with LR. Good luck to you.

 

[skipperdz]

if you dont mind cleaning bioballs from tiem to time then go for it...i pulled mine. and added a refugium...gets plugged intomorrow. should suck up all your left over nitrites