scottay Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Hi All, I have a new tank 5x2x2 running a 4 foot mini reef filter & 2 x the large blocks of marine pure & the usual filter foam/wool before that. what I was wondering is that I have a heap of Bioballs from my previous tanks & they are just going to waste so i was thinking I should put them into the Sump (as there is heaps of room left over after the Marine pure) but i was wondering if there was nay reason why i should not do this? I have been told & when i checked on the manufacture's website that for the tank size that is more than enough media but well it just doesn't look like much? all help appreciated!! Scottay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxious_nasties Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Surface area of Media like marine pure and matrix is not visible by the eye, this can be seen under a microscope. Since bacteria are microscopic, any item with a larger surface area can colonize more bacteria. Think of it like a hotel, the more rooms, the more people they can book in. Media becomes useless if there is not sufficient 'food' for the bacteria to utilise. Again, if you think in terms of a hotel, if they have plenty of rooms to house people but not enough food to feed them all, you won't have many guests staying even though the rooms are available. Hope my analagy was good, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwah Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 great analogy bioballs should not be completely submersed, so unless you have water trickling through them i wouldn't bother..and yeah if the marinepure is eating all the food, then there's no need anyhow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CThompson Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 bio balls provided they have water trickling through them and are not underwater are the best bio media available. Underwater forget it. With water trickling through them the one limiting factor that affects any media that is submersed, doesn't affect them. That is, they have complete access to oxygen. Their main limiting factor is surface area as John points out, but provided you have the ability to house them, just add more. In your case scottay, it sounds like you don't have the facilities nor the need, but if they are just sitting around doing nothing and there is the space, even though it is underwater, why not throw them in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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