Originally Posted by BigTang803
I just bought a wet dry filter. it was full of bio balls. I have always heard not to use bio balls on a reef system, because they take too much out of the water. What will happen if i use them??? what do they take out of the water?? has anybody tried this?? :help: :notsure:
You’re opening a HUGE can of worms lol
MY opinion is this.
The problem with bio balls is that over time they build up junk. IE: old food and stuff.
That junk turns to nitrates. After awhile those balls get so filled with crap that you have two choices. Live with a nitrate factory or take them all out and clean them.
The argument is that all of this happens with live rock, but here is where live rock comes out on top. There are all sorts of bacteria that live off of nitrates and can actually process nitrates for you. The problem is that these bacteria only grow in VERY low O2 environments. These environments do not exist in a high o2 system like a wet dry. But they do exist in wet dry systems that use live rock instead of bio balls. The reason is because they live deep inside the live rock where the o2 is low enough for them to thrive. So I said all that to say this.
Bio balls will create nitrates over time. What I do and what many others do is remove the bio balls and put live rock rubble in its place. This way I get the same effect as I do with a wet dry but I also get the added benefit of the rocks ability to process the nitrates.
will something bad and terrible happen if you use bio balls?? IMO no as long as you have enough live rock to process the trates that are being collected. my point is why even bother starting with them when the other option is clearly better?
GL to ya and don’t forget READ READ READ and when you done with that READ SOME MORE. You will save a ton of cash this way.
