bio balls

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Betsy

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Messages
35
Hi Everyone,

I bought my tank 2nd hand and it came with bio balls in the sump. I read somewhere ? that I shouldn't have the bio balls so I took them out of the sump. My tank is 75 G and has been up for 1 1/2 years, during the past 6 months I have been fighting with an algae bloom (I have a thread on algae blooms and have been working on all of the very helpful suggestions but recently wondered if the bio balls were an important piece I was missing)-- could taking the balls out have contributed to this? Should I put them back in? Should I treat them before I put them in as in soak them in salt water?

Thanks
Betsy
 
The only thing I can think of is when you removed the bio-balls it stirred up the nasty stuff and let out all the excess nutrients into the water. That could have fueled an algae outbreak. If you have a FO or a FOWLR then the bioballs can help your system they are not a good idea for a reef tank.
 
Thanks,

I have fish, live rock, corals, shrimp and many other little critters, so I won't put the bio balls back in.

Thank you
Betsy
 
In removing the bioballs you likely decreased the amount of biological filtration your tank had going. It should not be a huge issue, however. Keep up on the water changes and your tank should re-adjust. I recommend adding some LR rubble to the sump to replace the bioballs. It is a much better filtration media.
 
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