ive heard both sides of the bio-ball discussions, and ive got no personal opinion, but i was wondering, in a nano system, good, bad or just in between?:unsure:

I'd say in a nano would be the worst of all, since it's such a small volume of water. FO, or with large regular water changes, they might be ok.

As you can see, I'm firmly anti bio-ball in any reef.

i personally have an oceanic bio-cube, i removed the bio-balls and replaced them with some filter wadding. easyer to take out and clean, pls, it polishes the water.

I use bio-balls, including my Oceanic Bio-Cube. I'll put up my tanks against anyone.

I took the bio-balls out of my BC 14, because everyone warned that they were 'nitrate factories.'

The reason for this is that the NH3 to NO2 to NO3 cycle is aerobic (notice you go from no O's to 3 O's). In a trickle filter, where water is being trickled over bioballs, there is a lot of water and air mixing together.

Therefore there is nothing inherently bad about a bioball. It is just a substrate with a large suface area. When its put into a high oxygen environment, the Nitrates are produced more efficiently, and are back logged, because the next step (NO3 to Nitrogen) is anerobic. This is done by bacteria in low oxygen environments, such as inside of live rock and in a deep sand bed.

The common wisdom is that, first off, bioballs are not necessary if you have live rock, and secondly, they may cause you to have higher nitrates.

I took the bio-balls out of my BC 14, because everyone warned that they were 'nitrate factories.'

The reason for this is that the NH3 to NO2 to NO3 cycle is aerobic (notice you go from no O's to 3 O's). In a trickle filter, where water is being trickled over bioballs, there is a lot of water and air mixing together.

Therefore there is nothing inherently bad about a bioball. It is just a substrate with a large suface area. When its put into a high oxygen environment, the Nitrates are produced more efficiently, and are back logged, because the next step (NO3 to Nitrogen) is anerobic. This is done by bacteria in low oxygen environments, such as inside of live rock and in a deep sand bed.

The common wisdom is that, first off, bioballs are not necessary if you have live rock, and secondly, they may cause you to have higher nitrates.

yup, enough said. i could not have said it any better myself. nice post Psycojam !!

I use bio-balls, including my Oceanic Bio-Cube. I'll put up my tanks against anyone.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I've seen some GREAT looking tanks that use bio balls, wet/dry filters, canisters, even UGFs, I just think the reasoning behind them POSSIBLY causing a nitrate problem is too hard to ignore in my case.

I dont really think it matters. I know people that keep their bio balls under water in their nanos...its just more area for good bacteria. I personally pulled my bio balls out of my nano before I started it up (24g reef) but I kept the ceramic rings.

I don't have them in either of my tanks.

Walrus, do you use them in all of your tanks? How do you handle denitrification?