Bio-Balls

[kart racer]

I have seen alot of discussion on these lately, the good and the bad of them. I have them so my question is how many and how often should they be cleaned. I wouldnt think you would want to do them all at once so how many? Been considering a fuge and just do away with the balls but until then this is what I have so I will work with it. Any comments welcomed.
Jeff

 

[gasguzzler]

Set em and forget em. You dont need to do anything to them.

 

[moraym]

It depends on the rest of your filtration, as does everything in this hobby when it comes to maintenance.
But many people w/ bioballs suggest rinsing them off every month or so. And only cleaning 25% or so of them when you do so. Some people lightly rinse the sponge pad in the wet dry, although I never did this when I had one, at least not regularly at all.
Depending on whether youre running a reef set-up or a FOWLR, I personally remove the bioballs in exchange for LR in the wet-dry.

 

[gasguzzler]

I ran them for 2 years in my 125 and never had to touch them. Of course, my flow rate was through the roof so turnover wasnt a problem.

 

[tvan]

If you rinse them you destroy the bio filtration. Filter large particles before the bio balls.
HTH
Tom

 

[moraym]

Originally posted by tvan
If you rinse them you destroy the bio filtration.
Hence the reason people only rinse a small portion of them at a time. I never managed to do it every month, that's for sure.
But like gas, my flow rate and other filtration has always been overkill anyways.

 

[gasguzzler]

Go big or go home.

 

[cincyreefer]

Originally posted by gasguzzler
Go big or go home.
Have you heard this before Gas?

 

[gasguzzler]

Yeah, its usually coming out of MY mouth....jerk.

 

[thangbom]

i dont rinse my biobalzz.. they look like if they when new... no smell no nothing.. but then agin.. i swap out the filtet pad then lays on the drip plate 1x a month.. tanks literally 30 sec..

 

[moto757]

I had them in my sump and yanked them there was some nasty stuff in there with them and just put a fuge in there and it made a nice difference I wont use them again just don't like the crap they hold onto.