Bio-balls

[teach]

So I found some bio-balls on clearance so I decided to buy them. Are they any good ive heard a lil about them but i cant decide if I sould put them in my filter. So are these any good?

[robnepper]

Depends really. different materials offer different levels of bacterial housing capacity. The short version is that any time you increase the surface area of your biological media, you increase your bio-filtration. It's usually the porosity of the material that people get all fired up about. you have to be careful though, because if the pores are too small, you may be getting less bacteria than you think you are.

Really, if you like the idea, try it out. I'm curious about them myself.

good luck.

[korith]

I bought some for my canister and they seem to be ok. Not really sure how would I tell the difference. They do have a decent amount of surface area, and they don't impede water flow that much. I have one coarse sponge, then some fine filter floss and then about half the media bin is full of bioballs.

[cocoa_pleco]

theyre alright in canister filters, but theyre better in wet/dry filters with water trickling on them

[Fishguy2727]

Bioballs are designed for use in wet/dry filters, not for submerged use. They simply do not provide the surface area per volume of other medias. Don't waste the space in your canisters, use something like Matrix in there.

[teach]

well i guess I should have said what I have in my canister now lol. It has 2 sponge pads, filter floss thats about to go, carbon bag then ceramic rings so I dont know if I want to try or not I may use them in a CO2 diffuser I saw some plans in a magazine once. Thanks for all the input

[korith]

well i guess I should have said what I have in my canister now lol. It has 2 sponge pads, filter floss thats about to go, carbon bag then ceramic rings so I dont know if I want to try or not I may use them in a CO2 diffuser I saw some plans in a magazine once. Thanks for all the input

From reading what they said here, and from search, I think I'll take the bioballs out too and go with something more suitable for a canister.

[Fishguy2727]

I would not suggest the constant use of carbon. The bad things it takes out are taken out with adequate water changes. In addition to these carbon takes out a lot of good things. There is a whole article on this in my blog.