Bio balls...a thing of the past?

[adobo]

Is it me or are some people talking apples while others are talking oranges?

 

[ichthyoid]

So my 90 gallon tank I bought used came with a. Sump that was running bio balls. Seeing that I was just starting up the tank I used them and then later added maxspect bio blocks and bio spheres. What I’m wondering is can you have too much bio media? And does anyone even use bio balls anymore? I read a book recently that said some people had better coral growth removing the bio balls? So are they a thing of the past?

Here’s the bio media I added to the sump:

I used to run what was called a ‘wet-dry’ filter, which has a drip tray over a bunch of bioballs & people often referred to them as nitrate factories, which was true. They do an excellent job of helping in converting ammonium to nitrite & eventually nitrate. The cycle we are all familiar with. The only problem is ‘the cycle’ shouldn’t stop there.

I also have a LifeReef methanol fed denitrification filter, which grows bacteria which convert that nitrate to nitrogen gas. It also raises alkalinity during the anaerobic process. It gave the best water quality I’ve ever had in a marine tank.

While I still have the LifeReef, I’ve moved on and going with All for Reef this time around.

So, to answer your question, yes bioballs can still be used, just be prepared to deal with the nitrate.

 

[Reefman71]

Make sure to keep them clean, or they will cause a nitrate spike. Mine did. I’m using the Maxpect spheres now.

 

[Ross Petersen]

When I first heard about "bio-balls" in the hobby a few years ago, I was intrigued. I also found the name to be misleading and the science to be unclear. I'm in the same boat after reading this thread - 3 science degrees are of no help.

Has anyone (BRS?) done some objective studies on them? ;Bookworm

 

[fishkeepinginasia]

Here is what I learned a long time ago when bio balls were used for fish only tanks. Plastic bio balls used in what was termed a “wet/dry “ sump, where they weren’t submerged but tank water trickled through them harbored aerobic bacteria that would break down your nitrite to nitrate. Hence, wet/dry filters started to be termed “nitrate factories “, once reef tanks came around. Nitrate is harmless to fish, but we all know what high nitrates can cause in a reef tank. The bacteria that harbor live rock and deep sand beds are said to be anaerobic, and break down nitrates further into simple nitrogen. I still use bio balls but I keep them submerged mostly to break down bubbles coming from display before a refugium for example.

This reminds me of my first ever aquarium with a sump. It had that exact same wet/dry filtration. I started keeping coral and the guy at my local fish store told me to take them out for this exact reason.

 

[Lp1977]

I remember the old sumps or as they were called wet dry filters where a pvc arm with holes drilled at an angle the arms would rotate/spin depending on flow and spray water over bio balls or a filter floss mix roll. While it did the job it would DEFINETLY collect detritus and everything else. Now it's a clean sump with a properly sized skimmer and enough rock in the tank does the job! Fuge optional!

 

[KellyCorals]

So after reading what everyone had to say about it I’m thinking about removing the bio balls entirely and leaving my maxspect spheres and blocks in the sump but fully submerged. Also highly considering changing sump because it is a “wet/dry” set up. Just hoping this change won’t shock the system to much so I’m going to try and take the bio balls out a little at a time.

 

[Rjramos]

Plexiglas or glass sump? You might be able to reconfigure the baffles I f you can manage the down time somehow. I have done it in the past with success. I’m always conscientious of where all the plastic we produce goes. Even more so, recently with this pandemic. Hopefully, all these plastic shields will turn into cheap sumps when and if it’s over.

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Actually the best ideas in a reef tank is to utilize autotrophs as a minor
player. The best bet is to import or export the ammonia before it ever has a chance to become nitrate altogether. Which is easily done now by various methods

Minor players?!
How nitrogen cycles and carbon cycles are closed without autotrophs?
Without autotrophs you corals will not survive a single day.
Autotrophs are the base for a stable aquarium system as they are essential for a stable and balanced carrying capacity.

What should be the problem caused by nitrate wich makes it essential to avoid the formation it and risk ammonia build up?

Please explain how amonia-nitrogen is now easily exported while maintaining a reliable carrying capacity.
What are actually the best ideas in reefing wich may replace the work of autotrophs and how? What would be the various methods available?

 

[KellyCorals]

Plexiglass sump...right out of the 90’s. Not sure if I can reconfigure it but I’m going to try!

 

[KellyCorals]

Minor players?!
How nitrogen cycles and carbon cycles are closed without autotrophs?
Without autotrophs you corals will not survive a single day.
Autotrophs are the base for a stable aquarium system as they are essential for a stable and balanced carrying capacity.

What should be the problem caused by nitrate wich makes it essential to avoid the formation it and risk ammonia build up?

Please explain how amonia-nitrogen is now easily exported while maintaining a reliable carrying capacity.
What are actually the best ideas in reefing wich may replace the work of autotrophs and how? What would be the various methods available?

Can you give me some examples of autotrophs in the reef aquarium? I’ve unfamiliar with them. I thought the main source to export nitrates / ammonia was skimming and Water changes. I looked it up on my phone and maybe an algae scrubber?

 

[brandon429]

Even if you removed the spheres, blocks and bioballs all at once it doesn’t harm anything, none of those are needed to reef. Removing just the bioballs portion won’t matter as well.

We add them because we’ve been told to, no other reason. Removing unneeded items cannot harm. We have been trained to always, always, see bacteria as limited and barely able and easily disrupted where losses will happen, but it never does, not in any reef. the false training helps us keep buying the unneeded items, its a $ game

the extra surface area is good for non reefs.


for reefs with live rock, they are neutral. Your params don’t change before adding them, during, or with instant removal as live rock is masking any filtration they provide.

 

[Belgian Anthias]

If you can find the older AA articles that Dr. Holmes-Farley wrote on Nitrate (and even phosphate), there are many links that show that calcification slows as nitrate gets higher in a variety of true coral (not just one species like some). Also, some stuff on regenerative tissue being impacted significantly. However, I have not been able to find these articles for a while and the links in the reference section have started to go bye-bye a decade ago - maybe you can find them as purely academic papers. As you know, too much N and P will kill every living carbon based organism in differing amounts, so all of this makes sense that at some level, stuff is impacted. The real issue with all of this is even if all of my deepwater and smooth skinned acropora will suffer with a tank N of 100ppm, there are plenty of coral that seem unaffected at this level and those who believe that absent of a "study" that confirms whatever bias that they have, that all coral should do fine in these conditions - this is where the single-coral studies and efforts have less meaning to me.

Don't waste too much of your time on the rest of this... too many people without much actual experience who like to talk and don't like to read or learn.

Can you provide a reference for the statement calcification slows as nitrate gets higher.
As far as I know,
It is not the level which does influence coral growth rates and calcification rates. It has been shown to be availability. If nitrate is used as a nitrogen source growth rates are slowed down, this is the case for all organisms using nitrate instead of ammonia, also for photo-autotrophs. As for other organisms nitrate is only used if ammonia-nitrogen is not sufficiently available.
About calcification rates by corals, this is mainly influenced by carbonate availability, not by the nitrate level.
High nitrogen availability can cause phosphorus starvation during periods of increased growth, a main cause of coral bleachig. But this has to do with the availability of both nitrogen and phosphorus. Using nitrate, growth rates are slowed down.
Having 10 ppm or 20 ppm nitrate, growth rates wil not be different while using nitrate as a nitrogen source , this if all building materials are sufficiently available. The same can be said about algae growth rates.
It are not the nutrient levels which are responsible for growth rates, it is the availability of all essentials and the nitrogen source used.

 

[flampton]

Minor players?!
How nitrogen cycles and carbon cycles are closed without autotrophs?
Without autotrophs you corals will not survive a single day.
Autotrophs are the base for a stable aquarium system as they are essential for a stable and balanced carrying capacity.

What should be the problem caused by nitrate wich makes it essential to avoid the formation it and risk ammonia build up?

Please explain how amonia-nitrogen is now easily exported while maintaining a reliable carrying capacity.
What are actually the best ideas in reefing wich may replace the work of autotrophs and how? What would be the various methods available?

Never said replace... They're an essential back up team. However if you're using well thought out export/import methods you minimize the role. What processes? Algae turf scrubber, macro refugium,carbon dosing, tons of clamms,corals, Aiptasia etc... All of these methods will remove ammonia before nitrate. As you just stated nitrate is expensive to use, so most organisms prefer ammonia because they don't need to spend energy reducing the nitrate. So yes the nitrifiers play a role especially in a new aquarium. However in a well established healthy reef with a truly connecting food web and proper export processes in place will result in the majority of nitrogen flux as food-digestion-ammonia release-ammonia transport-conversion to proteins, nucleotides, etc.

 

[jda]

Can you provide a reference for the statement calcification slows as nitrate gets higher.

No, not any more. The links in the article that was written are all down and even the article is not available anymore.

I do agree that forcing corals to use nitrate would reduce growth and then, in turn, calcification rather than getting nitrogen from ammoni[a,um] which they can use. I also agree that nitrate levels is not a good indicator because even in higher level nitrate tanks, most corals and calcifying algae are still using ammoni[a,um] and not the nitrate. Most do not know that dinos and other microalgaes cannot really get N from nitrate.

BTW - I am all about availability and not residual levels of N, so you are preaching to the choir here.

 

[jda]

I will also say that I always wondered about some of the elevated nitrate studies about how the separated lower energy production from zoox vs actual difficulty in the calcifying structure. It is pretty clear that higher levels of P do hinder calcification, but N does not interact with aragonite like P does.

 

[KellyCorals]

I ended up removing all the bio balls and hit the LFS today and found they had a hang on sump filter sock kit for $49 by eshopps. I kept the maxspect spheres and blocks and added a Clear fx pro carbon bag because I’ve been running Flux RX for hair algae and I want to start removing it from the system. The filter sock setup was noisy but with a couple old pieces that I took out I was able to make a lid with holes in it and stick a filter pad on top of it and it did quiet everything down. Also the lid has holes which I think is cool so the whole drain area can still “breathe”. And I kept a small piece of live rock I had in there which chatto attached to it so it can regrow again. We’ll see how it does. I should have taken a before picture of the sump but just picture just about every other wet/dry sump system you’ve ever seen that has about 100 or so blue bio balls crammed in it.

Thanks for the advice everyone!
Not a fancy set up I know but reefing on a budget!

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Why using a biofilter!? With or without bio balls!

Why battling nitrates or nitrate formation? Shooting the messengers will not win wars.
If 80 ppm nitrate is present in a reefaquarium and the corals do not look very happy, is this because of the nitrate level present or because of the reasons why nitrate was forced to build up in a well lit aquarium?

What about high nutrient reef systems, about supporting a high bio-load?
Reefing is not only about LNS and VLNS. What if a reef display resembling a natural reef is the target?
But also an LNS grows, the carrying capacity needed will increase, slowly, without any warning, the carrying capacity may be exceeded. In a normal system, based on a balanced autotrophic - heterotrophic carrying capacity, nitrate and phosphate may be the messengers.
Most ammonia and phosphate is produced by heterotrophs.
Using a remineralizing bio-filter the carrying capacity can be adjusted and manged at all times, as needed. Without the need for all kinds of supplements.

What about cel-respiration ( dissimilation)?
How one may keep the balance between a growth based ( heterotrophic) carrying capacity and respiration in a reef aquarium? Growth means more feed, more dissimilation, more remineralization, more ammonia, and phosphate production. Most carbon will be exported as CO2, ammonia, and phosphates are produced. Heterotrophic bacteria must produce inorganic nutrients to provide the energy needed to produce DOM (DOC) and to grow, more production as used up by assimilation and growth may be the result, which may make them producers instead of consumers of inorganic nutrients. ref: This means, if autotrophic ammonia reduction is neglected, the growth rates needed to support the carrying capacity will increase, which increases the heterotrophic carrying capacity and ammonium reduction capacity needed, and so on. In LNS this may build up very slowly, but one day the inevitable will happen.
A heterotrophic-based carrying capacity depends on a human intervention which increases the risk for human error.

Using a biofilter all this is prevented as the carrying capacity can easily be adjusted and managed as desired.

Nitrifiers use ammonia mainly produced by heterotrophs to produce the energy needed to fix inorganic carbon and to make sugars, used to produce the energy needed for growth. In most reef systems photo-autotrophs are not welcome, this makes nitrifiers and other autotrophs an important organic carbon source within the biofilm and maybe for the system. What if also nitrifiers are not welcome anymore and must be replaced by heterotrophic growth? Dosing carbohydrates is often used but if overdosed may kill corals? (ref: CMF de Haes 2020)
To reduce the same amount of ammonia, heterotrophic bacteria need about 40x more building materials and energy (dissimilation) compared to autotrophs ( bacteria and archaea) will need. (ref: CMF de Haes 2018)

In an aquaculture system this is no problem, feed with a C:N ratio of at least 15/1 is used ( biofloc system) and all ammonia produced by dissimilation can be stored in heterotrophic biomass, the production of protein, and finally in the growth of the target specimen. After a period of time, before the growth rate needed can not be maintained anymore, when the target specimen is almost full-grown, everything is exported, harvested. This allows a very high bio-production ( +80kg/m³) in ZMAS ( Zero emission Marine Aquaculture System) as long the heterotrophic growth rates and protein production needed can be maintained.


Nitrate is the normal end-product of aerobic remineralization and is naturally exported by denitrification, the rest can be used in the food web and serve as a reliable and safely stored nitrogen reserve essential to support life in ammonium-limited conditions. +- 15 % of nitrogen processed in an aerobic remineralization and nitrification filter may be exported as N2 by nature, without interference or manipulation. This will also take place in the tank but the capacity is not reliable and certainly not as manageable as desired.
As nitrate production rates and denitrification rates are easily manageable using a biofilter, the manager of the system is able to decide how much nitrogen and growth is allowed in the system. The reefer is able to have full control over the input and export.

Biofilters may be very effective if using a mix of sulfur and calcium carbonate as a substrate for growing nitrifying bio-films and may this way export most ammonium- nitrogen processed in the filter. It is essential a safe nitrate reserve is present at all times. ( max+- 9 x the phosphate reserve present?)

It is essential to use bio-filters (bio balls?) in a refuge or reactor, which makes the flow - and removal rates easily manageable.

As a safe nitrogen reserve is needed in a closed system there is only one solution, providing sufficient nitrifying capacity. Adding organic carbon removes this capacity.

 

[Conchman]

As I recall the term nitrate factory did not refer to the bio- balls “creating” nitrate. Like most things left unattended they become detritus traps. We found that replacing a small portion every so often mitigated this. They were as one said part of the “trickle”. Any filter media I think has its place, we just need to understand how to manage and take care of it. And if you use actual bio-balls, you will be required to listen to 80’s music from time to time....

 

[brandon429]

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