Bioball question

[skae310]

I have a 14g biocube and my question is mainly whether or not to keep the bioballs which come with it. Some people say that they are a "nitrate factory" The tank has already been up for over a month and it is already cycled. LFS told me to replace them with LR rubble. What are your opinions on that? I currently have 12 lbs of live rock. Do you think i need more live rock? I want to eventually have some corals in it and I dont want my nitrates to be a problem.

 

[Innovator]

You won't need the bioballs, but I don't like keeping lr in small confinements either as this just produces detritus that is hard to get at/clean. In a 14g with reasonable amounts of lr there should be adequate bacteria and I would use the space where the bioballs were for other filtration aspects such as chemical media.

 

[skae310]

Okay. Whats your opinion about more lr. I only have 12 pounds which isnt quite a pound per gallon. I was thinking of adding maybe 3-5 more pounds? Or is that uneccesary? And as for chemical media instead of bioballs. What do you suggest?

 

[Innovator]

2lbs/gallon is usually a good estimate, but also depends on the aquascape you are trying to build. The most common chemical media used is carbon. I would either go with Seachem Matrix Carbon or Rox.

 

[skae310]

Okay thanks. I plan to add a little more rock then. I currently am stilll using the filter cartridge which came with the biocube. (well i changed it but the same kind) I believe that is carbon. Should i take that out and replace with the carbon you are talking about?

 

[InfernoST]

IMO any type of filtration will become a Nitrate factory if it's not properly maintained.

 

[skae310]

Yea i guess that is true. But its hard to maintain the bioballs in my filter. They are hard enough to get to. I don't want to have to do that unless they are the best way to go.

 

[InfernoST]

Gotcha. I'm using an Eheim 2080 with Suabstratpro (glass bioballs) and my nitrates run up to 6.5 mg/l in two weeks then i do a pwc (Under control for now), it could be lower but this is not that bad but much easier to maintain than your setup.

 

[skae310]

Yea I would be okay with mine around that. I just don't want to take them out and have more negative effects than nitrates a little high.

 

[InfernoST]

Understandable. Whatever works best for you.