Bio Balls

[eleyan]

Ive been told by a couple of people so far that my algae bloom might be traced back to the bio balls in my wet dry filter producing nitrates. How often do you clean them and what is the best way of cleanning them without disturbing the nitrifing bacteria on them.
Also, do I really need them in my sump if I have about 70-80lb of live rock in my 72G tank?

[ryanrichter]

I had some in my sump and slowly removed them. I have noticed a MAJOR improvement in water quality and less algae sinc I removed them.

[eleyan]

So how slowley should I remove them? 1/4 per week?

[alexwolf]

i have them in my sump for splash control. Also to help with microbubbles.

[GaryP]

About one hand full per week. Do you have enough LR to take over the bioballs?

If there is a connection between your algae bloom and bioballs, which I am somewhat skeptical of, its not because they are "dirty." It because the nitrifying bacteria use ammonia to produce nitrate. Did you ever test for nitrate, and if so, what kind of readings were you getting? IMO the problem isn't the bioballs but rather a lack of an appropriate envionment like a DSB to complete the nitrogen cycle that results in the formation of nitrogen gas. The bio balls are not doing anything different than what the bacteria on your LR is doing. The only thing I have against bioballs is that they aren't necessary in a mature tank with a sufficient amount of LR. IMO, phosphate is a bigger problem with algae blooms than nitrate. The other problem I often see is that folks don't have enough browsers to control even a small algae bloom and it quickly gets out of control.

I hope that has been of some help.

Gary

[dan]

i have removed all of mine. all i do now is just prefilter the water coming in my sump.

[eleyan]

Ok, Here is my situation:

72G
1-2" live sand
70-80lb LR
20G Oceanic sump with bioballs
Tunze skimmer
220W PC (new bulbs) on for 8hrs a day

I got the tank used about 6 months ago pretty much with the same setup I have now. It looked very clean (no algae at all) when I got it. I started getting some hair algae about a month after that. I figured it was because of the move since I disturbed the sand bed and rocks. It kept getting more and more and now its all over the rocks.

I tested my levels and everything looks fine:

amonia 0
nitrites 0
Nitrates 5ppm
PH 8.4
phosphates < .05 ppm
KH 9
Ca 400
Salinity 1.023

I've done a bunch of large water changes and nothing seems to be improving. I was told that both nitrates and phosphates might look OK because the hair algae is already consuming them. I have some macro algae in my overflow, and I'm thinking of building a coil denitrator. I don't want to disturbe the tank, so I can't add more sand or LR at this point. And I don't have room for a fuge. What's confusing me is that the previous owner had the same setup with no algae. I tryed to copy his exact feeding and dosing schedule. I'm not sure what else is left, that's why I'm taking any suggestions and the latest one I've heard was the bio balls.

[eleyan]

regarding grazers, I have a yellow and a regal tang and neither is touching the algae. I got a sailfin blenny and It doesn't look like its doing much either. I tried nudibranches, astria snails, crabs, nothings seems to be touching it. I'm thinking of taking my astria snails back to the store and getting mexican turbos instead. The only problem with them is they are too big and will knock down my small corals.

[Tim Marvin]

Since I removed all the bioballs from my system way back, it has done ten fold better. There is no need to have bioballs above the water producing nitrates and phosphates. Put rubble in place of them and keep it all under water. The rubble will produce pods for you as well. From what I understand you must wash the bioballs at a rate of 1/3 per week with tap water to "sterilize" them so to speak. Also if you have any sponges or other filter materials they should be cleaned weekly. You should have enough rock to take care of your waste conversion and do 20% water changes per month. Just my opinion.

[eleyan]

Just an update. I removed all the bio balls over the past month and added 20 more lbs of LR and now my Nitrates are stable at 0 and no more algae problem. GET RID OF YOUR BIO BALLS !!!!!!

[GaryP]

Congrats eleyan. Sounds like you have a good testimonial.

Gary

[Sunhutch]

I too have had algae problems and have tried multiple fixes with varied results. Getting my own RO/DI system instead of buying filtered water from other places was by far the biggest improvement. I believe now my next step is to get rid of my bioballs.

Eleyan, did you replace the bioballs with anything such as rubble or are you using any type of filter media?

Thanks, Ken

[eleyan]

The only thing I have in there now is just the spunge looking bre-filter media in my drip plate. I put a peice of pluxy glass to deflect the water so I don't get the waterfall sound all the time. I had to take out all the LR and scrub all the dead algae off of it because it was producing more wast as it was decaying. I did that 2 weeks ago and I just measured my levels this weekend and all are 0 including nitrates and phosphates.

[matt]

Your best bet to get rid of nitrates is to have a functional deep sand bed. This means 4" or more of small grain sand like SD or some equivilent, FULLY STOCKED with worms and other detrivores. This will result in areas of your and that are lower in O2 content, which is the environment that the bacteria responsible for processing nitrate into free nitrogen require. You can see this working on a good sand bed; bubbles coming out of the sand which show the nitrate being processed into free nitrogen, which then bubbles out of your system. Additional help can come from a refugium in which you grow caulerpa to sequester nitrate and phosphate.

I think the problem with the bio balls is that they provide a highly oxygenated environment only, which leads to an imbalance in bacteria type in your system. Live rock rubble is porous enough so that there are some areas of lower O2 on the rocks, but a good deep and bed is the best for this.

[matt]

Oh yeah, I forgot. I think your salinity is too low; you want 35ppt, which translates into a S.G. of about 1.025 at 80F I think. Another thing is that in a well balanced tank, nitrates and phosphate should be below the measurable threshold of hobby test kits. And, one more thing, is that despite all our good intentions and efforts, algae blooms in tanks under a year or 2 old are very common, so don't sweat it too much. I guess it just takes that long for the micro community to establish a balance with the chemistry of the specific tank.