Bio balls

[Limpit]

Back when I started keeping marine fish in 1983 wet dry filters, DLS and Bio balls were said to be the only way you could keep corals and difficult fish species alive. While I have always kept a tank or two since then, over the past 8 months I just really started to get back into the hobby and reading all the new info that is out there. Now people are saying that you should NOT run a system with bio balls and such because they cause high nitrates in the system. Is this because the bio balls are not submerged in the water? What is a person were to remove the tray that the bio balls are held up with and submerged them into the water, wouldn't they act like artificial LR as long as you had some natural LR in your tank? Just trying to think of something to do with all these bio balls I now have that are out of my tank, hmm maybe bio ball jewelry!

[jerryc]

Not a simple answer i don't like them
But i do no some have good luck using them

[Reptoreef]

They are completely beneficial, IMO. Sadly, there is a downside... Nitrates. For their purpose, though, they are unmatched!!!

[dakar]

Everyone seems to have an opinion on them, some folks like them and others hold them in close proximity to the plague.

I bought a great big box of them to goof with (they make great puzzles), with the intentions of experimenting with a coil denitrator and using them there, which has yet to come to pass. I did use them in the 'crash chamber' from the overflows from our 55g to reduce the air bubbles in the sump, 10' drop into the basement, so it really brought down a lot of air. They worked for what I wanted, but they were not in play long enough to really form an opinion of their effect on nitrates.