hello everyone , i am going to be using dead rock in my saltwater fish tank. so would it be better to put dead rock in my filter or keep the bio balls?
bio balls vs. rock
- Thread starter saltwaterulz
- Start date
dude im pretty sure this website is for asking questions and getting answers not for asking questions and people getting made because i asked 3 questions
ok dude im sorry if im asking too many questions but could i please get some help on this question
Bioballs. The purpose of having it in your filter is surface area for biofiltration. Some rocks have a good amount of surface area but the bioballs were created for that purpose.
in a well established tank it dosent really seem to matter what u have as media as long as it works. ive tried ceramic rings, active carbon, sponges, bios balls layers of filter pads in a sump and nothing works better than cleaning it out once in a while.
Adding Bio-balls if you have them to a filter will provide excellent bio-filtration.
The downside to extremely efficient ammonia converting bacterial colonies is nitrates.
If you are willing to keep up on water changes then the bio-balls are fine.
The live rock serves the same purpose as the bio-balls but has "internal" surface area to grow denitrifying bacteria. This helps to keep the nitrates lower than tanks filtered with just bio-balls.
Either way is safe, just make a scheduled maintenance program and stick with it.
The downside to extremely efficient ammonia converting bacterial colonies is nitrates.
If you are willing to keep up on water changes then the bio-balls are fine.
The live rock serves the same purpose as the bio-balls but has "internal" surface area to grow denitrifying bacteria. This helps to keep the nitrates lower than tanks filtered with just bio-balls.
Either way is safe, just make a scheduled maintenance program and stick with it.
If you have enough live rock in the tank, IMO it would not matter if you use bio balls or LR in the sump. The rock in the tank will serve the same purpose as in the sump.