Bio-Ball Placement
- Thread starter Cblake007
- Start date
Bio balls are meant to be in a wetdry. So they are almost useless on the surface, canister, or HOB.
if you have enough flow then the bio balls will still be doing what they would if they were in a filter. with enough flow water will be circulated around the balls, almost like a filter. everything that the water touches, rocks/gravel/sand/wood, in your tank has beneficial bacteria on it so basically your tank is one big bio filter.
they will probably make your tank a bit less pleasing to the eye though.
bio balls are, in fact, an effective media in almost any type of filter and are far from useless as is mentioned above. they may be more efficient in a wet/dry but they certainly arent useless.
they will probably make your tank a bit less pleasing to the eye though.
bio balls are, in fact, an effective media in almost any type of filter and are far from useless as is mentioned above. they may be more efficient in a wet/dry but they certainly arent useless.
TheCanuck;4000024; said:
I completely agree they are best used in a wet/dry... but I think they are more than "almost useless" in other situations...
In a wet/dry type filter bio balls allow aiur to reach the bacteria far more effectively than ceramic nugget type bio media... thus makign them great for a wet/dry application...
When submerged, the benefit of allowing air to circulate in the large openings is lost... therefore bio balls pale in comparison to ceramic nuggets in terms of surface area.
Thus ceramic nuggets are better used in submerged situations and bio balls are better used in wet/dry filters.
But as commonly noted, bacteria will grow on darn near any surface in the system, so yes you will get some bacteria forming on the surfaces of bio balls floating in the tank. Although they would be such an eye sore I'd never do it.