placing the bio balls in DIY sump matters ?

[raven4d]

hello friends ;

currently am using a sump that i mad manually with a bio balls champer which always fille d with water , a friend told me that the bio balls must not be under water ,, the water must only pass over them !

is this right ?

thank you in advance

 

[Fishguy2727]

I wouldn't use bioballs at all. I am guessing this is a saltwater tank. 80% of your filtration will be the live rock, then skimmer and refugium. If you alreayd have the sump made and don't want to change anything about it use live rock (or porous rock, doesn't even have to be live) in that chamber.

 

[raven4d]

hello again and thank you for your reply ..

sorry i forgot to mention that am talking about my brackish tank ...

 

[cmor1701d]

For a FW or BW tank a wet/dry system using bioballs is great. Most of the bioballs are above water (dry) and those on the bottom are always in water (wet). Above the bioballs is usually a diffusion plate ( a plate or box with lots of holes drilled in it). On top of the diffusion plate is a filter pad.

Water from the tank flows over the filter pad to catch the larger particles. The diffusion plate gets the water to trickle over the bioballs. The filter pad needs to be cleaned or replaced often.

The water flowing over the bioballs allows lots of air to come in contact with the bioballs. That's great for the bacteria that turn ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. Nitrate is then removed by partial water changes (PWCs).

 

[raven4d]

thank you alot !

your help is well appreciated