Are these bio rings garbage?

[bobblehead27]

Received a bunch of bio rings and bio balls from a friend who overbought. Planned on throwing them in a tank to get seeded so I can throw them in a new tank and speed up the cycle process. When I opened the bio rings, most looked good, but one box had this black stuff on it, should I just trash these?

Also are these rings and balls really that beneficial? Or is it just marketing?

 

[deeda]

The black spots could be carbon dust from someone's fingers or any other number of things. See if it wipes off or has an odor to it. Rinsing them off with a strong spray of water may also help remove it if it's not greasy. Either way you can always give them a good soak in a bleach/water mixture to disinfect them, then rinse in fresh water and add some Prime to the new water to remove chlorine bleach.

As far as I know or care, any bio-media is just fine to use for our purposes especially if it's free.

 

[bobblehead27]

Sounds good. Thanks