removing bio balls and using base rock ?

[charles6299]

if i remove bio balls from the wet dry chamber, and i put in small bits of base rock......would this help buffer the water ? will the rock eventually become live?...........will this still produce nitrates ?

[BubbaWPB]

it would eventually become "live rock". Bioballs "produce nitrates" but collecting detruitus in all their little pockets. I've heard of people putting live rock in the sump to avoid having to put it all in their tank, but I've never heard of using "small bits" of base rock.... I think it would collect detruitus just like the bioballs.

[charles6299]

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[charles6299]

so would this be bad or good ?

[Steven Pro]

If there is enough liverock in the display, it is likely unnecessary.

[charles6299]

i guess what i am asking is....is it bad or good ? will this help buffer water and help maintain supremo water condition ? Yes, there will be plenty of rock in display tank

[Steven Pro]

If there is any buffering capacity, it would be minimal in my opinion.

[BubbaWPB]

...and anything unnecessary means more maintenance, IMHO. You'd still need to blast the detruitus off the live rock in the sump and vacuum it out every so often.

[squirt]

I have a 100 gallon all-fish setup. For years, I ran a wet-dry with bioballs and had constantly high nitrate levels for the fish, even after doing a 50% water change. I wondered how they continue to survive, but they did.

Someone recommended live rock to me about 2 years ago to lower the nitrates. I took out all of the bio balls, put just 50 lbs of live rock in the tank, put sand in the sump for additional de-nitrification, and my tank has almost zero nitrates.

I was told that the bio balls don't cause nitrate problems, but that the tank is missing a means of de-nitrification. That's where the live rock and sand come in.

I've concluded that as long as you have live rock in the tank, you won't need the bioballs.
Hope that helps.

[Reefland]

The waste that accumulates in the bio-media is the cause of nitrates.