From Bio balls to Live rock???

I Think most people don't understand the the trick to Bio-balls and LR being used in sumps.
In a sump the water is awefully turbulant and produces alot of oxygen ,
when the question of bio-balls verses pieces of LR ( surface area ) , hands down the BIO-BALLS win , simply because you can pack more of them into the area and LR is more dense than a few hundred round plastic purfirated balls.

(imo) The use of any bio-ball / LR in the bottom of a sump is somwhat useless , unless the bio-balls / LR is fully submurged , Its the anirobic bacteria that your after.

And as geekafied says , finding the source of the problem and correcting that first should be the issue , not adding more ( fuel to the fire ) as it were.
As for me I donnot use bio-balls , I think them to be more trouble than their worth.

Most people fill their sump to the brim with bio-balls and at the top of the sump area aloowing the tank return water to hit them , carrying food waste, etc. right to them , the bio balls collect this stuff and start producing nitrates.

So if your going to use them It's important to clean the uper most part of them to remove that waste that they've accumilated over time,
Bio-balls are NOT maintanance free.

 

Its not possible that ROCK can be more porous then BIOBALLS. Smaller detritus and debris get caught in liverock then bioballs if that is a concern for people.

People think because its "liverock" its better, well bioballs have more surface area then liverock in the same amount of space. Surface area=home for bacteria.

People need to learn to use common sense and think for themselves.

 

Liverock will collect more debris and detritus vs bioballs. I dont know if you have seen a good wet/dry filter where it has a place to put polyfloss to catch excess food and larger particles. So when instead of having to clean out the bioballs or replacing them, you just change out the polyfloss instead. Thats is also the purpose of a filter sock.

 

So as the original poster asked............should the Live Rock in the trickle chamber be submerged or just half submerged?

 

From what my lfs told me the live rock should be submurged. I can't say for sur this is true but both of my lfs told me the same thing.

 

i was told submerged also, i guess ill see how it goes.


anyone know How often do i have to clean the rocks if its in my sump??

 

Why even the discussion? Just toss the bioballs, make a refugium and throw the liverock in the fuge or back in the display tank.

I guess I don't understand why anyone would go through the trouble of removing bioballs and replacing with liverock when you could just make a fuge and not worry about the nitrate debate.