Using Bio Balls

Hi brads, its all about surface area.

 

In my opinion the ceramic rings are better. But other people feel differently.

 

not entirely no . . a large surface area that is smooth will hold less bacteria than a smaller more porous substance .

does bio balls have a larger surface area than similar sized ceramic rings? even if it does im not convinced that it can colonise more bacteria than ceramic rings wich to the eye are much much more porous . bio balls are plastic I don't see the point unless they are meant to house tiny tiny bacteria that grow on the small pores of plastic?

 

Rigt in the beginning there are a image showing survice area for materiaal.

 

I have filter sponge, bio balls, filter floss, finaly porous ceramic it works great i only clean it every 3 months

 

ya but everyone or most people use bio balls AND ceramic rings . who's to say the bio balls are doing very little and the ceramic rings are picking up all the slack?
I haven't heard of anyone using only bio balls as a biological filter and being successful. I do know many who only use ceramic rings though .

surface area is important yeah but so is the porous nature of the media even more so in my opinion .

 

Its ALL about surface area that is why you want a porous material. The one thing about ceramic rings
are that they are ceramic RINGS,meaning its got a big whole in the middle with no surface area. Bioballs wa designed for optimal service area.
I am no expert but this make sense in my head.
I think the best thing might be those blocks woman use to scrub their heals. They look pretty porous to me

 

not al rings are hollow some have a cross section in the middle .

bio balls are also empty in the middle but they are plastic .

each to their own I guess .

 

Brads, actually it is just about large surface area, thats why porous substances make good bio media because for the relatively small size it still has a large surface area where bacteria can grow.

 

Pumice stones? That's an interesting thought. Has anyone ever tried using them as a biofilter media?

 

I use a combination of ceramic rings, bio balls and Seachem Matrix in my canister filters. One liter of Seachem Matrix has the same surface area as 170 liters of plastic bio balls. Another advantage of Seachem Matrix and a good quality ceramic ring is the porosity of the material that increases the surface area. The bacteria does not only colonies the outside of the media, as with bio balls, but also the pores. So when you clean your filter and rinse the media, you do not lose so much bacteria.

I have also read that the bio ball are more suitable to use in wet/dry filters. But loads of canister filters are sold with bio balls and ceramic rings as filter media. They will work, but there are other filter media that will out perform bio balls.

But your decision should be based on the amount of surface area that a specific media has. The more surface area, the better suited it will be for biological filtration.

 

then why do you use bio balls if matrix has a larger surface area .

 

My Bio Balls have a small square of sponge in the middle of each ball!

 

I have three large canister filters. The two Tetra canister filters came with bio ball and ceramic rings and the Eheim came with their Substrate Pro filter media. On point throwing the media supplied with the filters away. I have just substituted the contents of one media basket in each filter with Seachem Matrix to provide more surface area for the bacteria to colonize, and thus improving the biological filtration that takes place. It would be pointless leaving the other media baskets empty, seeing that I have filter media to place in them.

 

@ donovan what brand are those ?

 

I dont think a sponge in the center of a bio ball is such a great idea, how are you going to clean it ?

 

@ george that's why I wanted the brand to read up on it. the main thing bio balls and rings do is enable water flow and provide surface area , doesn't having sponge also hamper the water flow through the media. this depends on the type of sponge I know but still .

I rock ceramic I think its beter . besides I can't justify the price of bio balls wich are just pieces of plastic they must of been dirt cheap to produce .

 

Remember that there are many different types of bio balls.

 

Im not sure the brand i got them from a guy for a reasonable price and its only a tiny piece of sponge about 1cm2

They open up into 2 halves but i doubt i would need to clean them that often if ever as i have 2 different types of sponge on top to remove dirt

 

sounds cool