Originally Posted by
sh00tist
http:///forum/post/2593038
Cleaning them is one solution though Im certain you lose a lot of the bacteria when you do this creating a certain amount of risk, it will grow back however.
I sort of agree with most every thing you said there except for a few things.
biological bacteria forms a bio film. the longer the biofilm grows the stronger its adhesion to the surface its on. In an exerpt I was reading when a scientest was being interviewed about biological bacteria descriped it as virtually impossible to wash off a surface after its established. this part I will quote "you'll be hard pressed to get it off with a pressure washer" so rinsing your bioballs in marine water at every water change produces almost no removal of bactreria, I'm sure some bacteria gets dislodged in the process but the loss is extremly minimal. if you were to wash them in tap water doom to the colonized bacteria. but that would fall under improper maintinence. live rock in a drip sytems has every chance to get as clogged up as bioballs, in fact because off the smaller size of the pores and uneven/rougher texture of the rock it is actually more prone to detritus trapping and it needs to be cleaned out just as often as bioballs.
live rock rubble is far more effective submerged with high flow than it is in a trickle system the shapes of the rock and the way it packs together make dead spots in the trickle zone. the shape and pin spacing in bioballs is to create a splashing random path for water so all areas under the drip panel stay moist and to allow high oxygen exchange throughout the set up.
I agree that the surface area of bioballs is totally incomparable to the surface area you can pack in the same space with LR rubble, but a blanket statement like made by a previous poster that bioballs are bad is just nonsensical, they are good for what they do there are better filtrations available but can be very effectivly employed. its like saying HOB filters are useless, they have their uses though not as good in my opinion for marine tanks they can be effectivly employed. its improper maintinence that makes most filters "bad"
another thing that bioballs wont do that LR will is become impregnated with phosphates. live rock absorbs phoshates and one it reaches its peak absorption level it either stops absorbing it, or if the waters phosphate level drops below the the phosphate content of the rock the rock then re introduces phosphates to the system in a trickle system all of your water ends up passing through the drip zone constantly impregnating the rock with the phosphates (this happens through out your system to all your rock which is one reason lots of highly expirienced reefers tend to swap out old rock for new from time to time to avoid the ten year crash)
I could keep going on this subject but I am sure I have strayed far enough from my point already. basicly to sum up I will just say there is a pro and con to every type of filtration, each person needs to judge what will work best for them in their situation, and application, and decide what maintinence levels they are willing to provide to keep their system operating at maximum efficiency. bio balls arent bad they arent the best they are just another option for filtration.
