Bio ball removal advice

[CandisGray]

Hello all! I am wanting to remove my bio balls from my wet/dry trickle filter due to all the bad things I have heard about them and I need a little advice. I understand to remove them slowly but should I put LR rubble in my wet/dry or not? I would not be able to put much in there if it needs to be submerged in the water. As you can see in my pic. What do you think?

[Ninong]

Hi CandisGray,




If you have live rock in your tank, then you don't need the bio-balls in your trickle filter. You really don't need any live rock rubble in there either.

Remove one-third of the bio-balls every other week.

[smpolyp]

I agree with Ninong You don't need the bioballs if you have enough live rock.
Actually the bio balls can rob your system of oxygen which is very benifitial to the tank. In two different cases I have found an aquarist with a mand made biofilter and a redox meter(basically a meter that reads the ability to retain oxygen in your tanks water). I told them to remove some of the bio media (bio balls) and see what happend to the redox level. In both cases everytime they removed the biomedia the redox would increase.
If you are afraid, remove the balls at a small rate and test for ammonia.(providing that your tank is already biologically stable)

[BengBear]

Hi,
My display tank has live rock while sump tank has bio rings (immerse in water) and bio-balls. Some or small qty of bio-balls (looks similar to those blue color in your attachment) are immersed in water. While a large qty of bio-balls are above water. Some of them are in the way of the returning water from the main tank.

Can I remove those bio-balls (blue color in your attachment) to make way for the 'turf filter' in another tread?

Please let me know.

[kronos5]

How Big is your tank ??