I dont really understand

by **littlej2455** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 4:32 am

should the live rock be fully submerged under the water in the sump? I was thinking about buying about four to five pounds of live rock and just keeping most of the bio balls. how does that sound?

by **schigara** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:09 am

Yes, LR should be fully submerged. Get the 4-5 lbs of live rock and also get about 50lbs of base rock. Set the live rock on top of the base and in a few months, the base will be as live as the live rock. After that, get another 50-75lbs of base rock. If you don't like the look of LR, pack as much as you can in the sump.

Bio Balls suck fat elephant cock compared to live rock. PERIOD.

by **littlej2455** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:15 am

hahaha yeah i heard that the bio balls arent very good. But i went to my LFS and he recommend adding about 5-6 pounds of live rock and just taking some bio balls out. So i guess if i dont see a difference then I will just have to add more live rock. What kind of live rock do you guys recommend to put in a sump?

by **schigara** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:25 am

It doesn't matter which live rock. It's all live. What matters is the porosity and lightness of the rock. A small, dense and heavy rock is not as effective as a small, porous and lightweight rock.

If a rock feels lighter than it looks, it's good rock.

In a sump, lightweight, rock rubble. Just small tiny pieces. Pack it in.

If you added just 5lbs of good lightweight, porous live rock, you could probably do away with all the bio balls. They are just that inefficient per mass.

by **littlej2455** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:26 pm

wow thats crazy, i had no idea about the bio balls being so ineffective.

by **Snowboss4492** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:50 pm

the problem with bio balls and other inert matierials as well is that while good bactieras do gro on them so do bad ones as well and then you could just be putting those right back into your tank and creating a very nasty little cycle from tank to sump back to tank

by **dick_headers** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:28 pm

..."When i was cleaning out my filter he other day I looked at the air valve. It sounded like a gurgling noise, kind of like not all the proper air was going through the tube correctly. How do I fix this?"

I'm pretty sure you have some water in your air tube. Just take it off, blow it out, and put it back.

Just a few wotds about bioballs, or any other type of bio materials. When they came out with those biofilters-such as Emperor, Penguin etc..- it was a big deal. Boss, you mentioned that those bioballs holds bad bacs as well. That is true, but certainly not that much. There's always some kind of mechanical filtration before the bio material. Back than it was a big shot. Live rock and live sand wasn't that popular, and it was somewhat expensive. Ebay and stuff wasn't that popular, so you usually ended up at the LFS and paid 10-13 bucks for a pound.

I think bioballs and other bio materials as well, were designed for fish only systems, where nitrate levels can be "tolarated". I realized along the way that most fishes can tolerate relative high ( above 40ppm) nitrate levels if they grow up with it. i'm not saying it's a good thing, but most fishes can live with it. If you have biowhatever in your fish only tank, it will be very beneficial. Faster cycling, more stabilized water.

On the other hand, bio materials fast become waste of money, and "get 'em out of there" part of a modern aquarium. Today there's no saltwater set up without any live rock and/orr live sand. Which is a good thing. Either LR or LS much more effective than any kind of biomaterial. Period
But belive me, it was a great thing back than, but certainly not for todays aquariums.

by **Snowboss4492** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:55 pm

i stand corrected, i agree they are probably "better" in a FO environment for the reasons you posted .................do you think this move away from bio balls and other bio matierials to live sands and rocks are just a natural progression in the hobby? or did old school salt people use it way back like in the 40s and 50s and we are just now coming back around to it with availabilty, shipping, internet etc etc etc ..................i only ask because i found an old article from the late 40s about a very rich family who had a salt water aquarium .....a very large 30 gallon one, lol and they only had those carbon and cotton air cans for filters and had to do almost daily water changes and basically ony had what they could catch on the beach ...................but it was equivilant to somewhere in the 7500-10,000 dollar range in todays costs .....interesting story , ill have to see if i can find it again and post it

hows the lil one doin man

Snowboss

by **lightsluvr** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 5:31 pm

It's not that the bio-balls are ineffective. They just make great nitrate factories... Toss them ALL out... If your profile is a current picture of your saltwater tank, I don't know how anything survives...You have almost no filtration except for a 150 powered skimmer? I am not familiar with that product. But a skimmer is just a small part of the overall balance for your aquarium. A refugium is a great idea - I have one in my sump, but I also have 1 pound of live rock for each gallon of water in my system. Using that standard formula, you should have 125# of LR in your display. Live rock is a primary filter for your water. A refugium alone will not be successful in the long run...
Maybe I have misunderstood what you are running so if that's the case I apologize...
Good luck with your piece of the ocean...
LL

I dont really understand

19 posts • Page 2 of 2

I dont really understand

19 posts • Page 2 of 2