bio balls

[blue steel]

are bio balls necessary for a sump:help:

 

[birdy]

If you have a sandbed and 1.5 -2.0 lbs of LR per gallon of tank water. Then you do not need bioballs in your sump. I would recommend a refugium though.

 

[jlem]

Originally posted by Birdy
I would recommend a refugium though.
Refugiums are nice but if you don't have the bioload to support a refugium then you are just wasting money, but if you plan on using a sump then a refugium is easily incorporated and probably is a better choice than bioballs. My tank forexample does not have a high enough bioload to really benefit from a refugium. If I had more rock and more livestock then I would probably incorporate a refugium to handle the increased bioload and to make up for the lower water volume that I would have.