Bioballs in a nano

[ericgreathouse]

I am setting up a 14G Biocube and am not sure whether to leave the bioballs in it or not. I've seen pics of someone filling one of the sections with live rock rubble and am tempted to do that instead. Any advice would be great. I've always taken the bioballs out on my larger reef tanks but this is my first attempt at a nano tank.

Thanks.

[FishboyBT]

Take them out-Nitrate factories!

[racksteris]

Bioballs are great for freshwater, Freshwater fish are not affected too much by Nitrate. But for saltwater they produce too much Nitrate and saltwater fishes are more sensitive too Nitrate.

[Toygrr]

oops...i have bioballs in my skimmer... i guess ill take em out now xD

[ArgonDreams]

Originally posted by racksteris
Bioballs are great for freshwater, Freshwater fish are not affected too much by Nitrate. But for saltwater they produce too much Nitrate and saltwater fishes are more sensitive too Nitrate.

This isn't precisely accurate. Freshwater fish are widely varied and are affected by nitrate at different levels. This is identical to saltwater fishes. Some saltwater can take amazingly high levels while others can not take any at all. You only need to point to most FO system to see bioballs and high nitrate systems that flourish.

However I do agree, if you plan on a reef you should be prepared to clean the bio balls constantly to prevent them from producing to much nitrates from accumulated detritus. Or better yet remove them entirely. I recommend for your bio cube to buy the optional air driven skimmer. It will be a better nutrient export then those bioballs ever well.

Finally, nitrates do directly affect nearly everything in a reef except fish. Corals, Inverts, Live Rock are all affected negatively by Nitrates until it can reach lethal levels as it rises. So as with the others I recommend removing it and doing regular water changes and adding that skimmer.

If you aren't familiar with the skimmer you can see it: Here and Here.

[m2434]

Sometimes they are "nitrate factories", plenty of people use them however without problems. There are two reasons that they may produce extra nitrates.

1) They get dirty - detritus accumulates in them and can not be consumed by organisms because of the location.
Solution - Clean them

2) Proximity to denitrifying bacteria. It has been shown that denitifying bacteria is most effective when in close proximity to nitrifying bacteria. When nitrification takes place in bio-media, there is no denitrifying bacteria in the immediate vicinity to convert the nitrate to nitrogen gas.
Solutions - Water changes, and/or run the effluent through some de-nitrifying filter such as a coil or sulfer denitrifyer or refugium.


In a large tank it is generally considered unnecessary because there is sufficient LR and DSB to take care of all of the nitrification and denitrification. In a small tank however, it is unclear whether or not a DSB is even effective or if there would be sufficient LR. It is tough to battle nitrates in a large tank, because you would need to do extremely large water changes - try a 50% water change in a 200g tank... In a small tank, where it is easy to do a large water change, you can eliminate nitrates with water changes alone.

Ammonia is highly toxic and nitrate is not - I'm always amazed at how many health looking tanks I've seen with nitrates over 50ppm and some people have even argued it is actually ideal to have nitrates around 10ppm. So, the conclusion, we probably worry a bit too much about nitrates... you do not need to keep them at 0, as long as, you do not have algae problems. Nitrates really are not toxic, the algae is the problem and can be fought efficiently through reduction of phosphates - so you could have 200ppm nitrates, with no phosphates and have no algae and a healthy tank!

So, there could be a stronger argument for increased nitrification in a nano tank. The tank is more sensitive to changes, if something dies for example, you could actually see a ammonia spike that would not occur in a larger tank. A trickle filter is much more effective at nitrification than LR or DSBs, but does nothing for denitrification, however, it will "react" to the ammonia spike faster and prevent further death. So, in a small tank there may be a benefit, because the ammonia spike would have greater consequences, than in a large tank, and any resulting nitrate could be eliminated through a large water change.

It is a personal preference, but in a small tank, bioballs could be good insurance as long as you carefully monitor and keep up with nitrates.