# Bio Balls



## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

Check it out, just got my shipment of bio balls in just now. Bought 3,000, 1 1/2 inch balls. Going to use them for a centralized biological filtration for when I put together my racks. I was just wondering though, how much biological filtration is 1 bio ball good for?


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## BOy2K (Oct 24, 2007)

StryfeMP said:


> Check it out, just got my shipment of bio balls in just now. Bought 3,000, 1 1/2 inch balls. Going to use them for a centralized biological filtration for when I put together my racks. I was just wondering though, how much biological filtration is 1 bio ball good for?
> 
> View attachment 162910


to be honest mate if you want to bio filter a high volume of water then i would get a fluidized sand bed filter or two.
im currently installing one to my tank. they are vastly superior to any other kind of bio filtration, only downside (if you consider it one)
is that they only bio filter, so you need to filter debris seperately. im running a xp3 mech, chem, mech then running it through my sand bed
filter.

im gonna post up on my progress soon.
heres my set up diagram anyway.


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

That looks good and I thought about making a fluidized bed filter but couldn't figure out how much sand to put in there so that it doesn't unload into the tank. I'm just going to make a big sump for like 50x 10gallon tanks, all drilled and using a large pump to pump and circulate the water to the tanks.


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## BOy2K (Oct 24, 2007)

StryfeMP said:


> That looks good and I thought about making a fluidized bed filter but couldn't figure out how much sand to put in there so that it doesn't unload into the tank. I'm just going to make a big sump for like 50x 10gallon tanks, all drilled and using a large pump to pump and circulate the water to the tanks.


"With more than 6,200 square feet of surface area per cubic foot of media,"

so a little goes a-llooooong way









my filter is a 15"x3.5 tube and its filled with silica sand about 5" up and is rated to filter at least 150gals..


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## waldron (Jan 15, 2007)

thats alot of balls


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

Now you've got me debating whether or not to just make a fluidized bed filter...

I'm guessing though that before any water reaches the fbf, it has to be mechanically filtered so that detritus doesn't build up in the fbf?


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## Doktordet (Sep 22, 2006)

Boy2k's set up sounds good. You just have to religiously keep up with your pre-fbf mechanical filtration maintenance for it to work out. As to the sand unloading into the tank, idk how u can get around that.


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

But with an fbf, wouldn't you have to dial up the correct water pressure going into the canister so that sand doesn't blow out?

How do you get around that?


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

With the bio balls I planned on filling 20gallon long tanks with them and completely submerge them in water with long flat air stones at the bottom to provide oxygen to the bacteria so they can do their thing. Check out the crude drawing.









The air being pumped through the air stones will provide oxygen as well as rapidly circulate the water within the sump so that the dirty water can be fully biologically filtered before overflowing into the pump area.


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

With a fluidized bed filter, if the electricity were to cut out, the sand would settle in the canister would it not? Wouldn't that cause it to become anaerobic in a short period of time and potentially release highly toxic hydrogen sulfide?


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Not sure about an individual bio ball but I know that a cubic foot of bio balls has 44 square feet of area for bacteria to colonize on. They are not intended to be submerged in water but to have water and oxygen hit them for optimal performance, if a large setup than a spraybar is recommended. As far as a sand filter goes, the person to ask would be Pedro because before he moved to Roselle he had a giant fluidized sand filter setup. He can probably give you the pros and cons of it on a grand scale.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

There are approximately 700 balls in a cubic foot. You can do the math... lol


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

hahaha math.... + me + thinking = brain fart! lol

A spray bar, didn't think of that. Thanks. I think I'll just use my bio balls instead of a fluidized bed filter.

Pedro from aquascape?


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## Bawb2u (May 27, 2004)

StryfeMP said:


> With a fluidized bed filter, if the electricity were to cut out, the sand would settle in the canister would it not? *Wouldn't that cause it to become anaerobic in a short period of time and potentially release highly toxic hydrogen sulfide?*


From what I understand that's the main drawback with the FBF. Due to the compaction of the sand there is a much shorter window of time before they go anaerobic.
For a quick and easy filter setup using 5 gallon buckets try this: Two 5's will fit in a 20 long, get 2 lids per bucket, cut one lid to fit inside the bucket about 3-4" down for a drip plate, drill holes all through it, drill holes in the bottom of the bucket, cut a hole in the remaining top for your water from the tank, drop a piece of blue filter foam on top of the drip plate and boom, about 8-9 gallons of bio-media in a 20 gallon tank.


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

Sounds good, thanks for the idea bawb2u.


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## BOy2K (Oct 24, 2007)

StryfeMP said:


> With a fluidized bed filter, if the electricity were to cut out, the sand would settle in the canister would it not? Wouldn't that cause it to become anaerobic in a short period of time and potentially release highly toxic hydrogen sulfide?


to control the flow of water into the FBF you add the control valve as seen in my diagram. this controls the amount
of water entering the FBF. Without this yes the water flow rate from my xp4 would blast the sand out of the filter.
as for the anaerobic part..



> Les was negative in his comments about this type of filter a year ago and he challenged the manufacturers claims that the fluid bed had a very high potential for colonisation by aerobic bacteria. He thought that although the movement of the sand released a lot more surface area with a potential for bacteria in practice, there could be insufficient dissolved oxygen for this potential to be realised. On a recent visit to the Tropical Marine Centre, Les noticed that they had installed large fluidised bed filters alongside the trickle filter towers. The livestock manager explained that they were installed because they have found that if there is a breakdown, due to power failure, the trickle filters fare very badly and take a long time to recover due to the bacteria dying off en masse. Fluidised bed filters recover quite quickly. This is surprising as one would assume that the bacterial populations would survive much better than those in immersed filter systems simply because the trickle filter bed had direct access to atmospheric oxygen. Apparently there is little osmotic pressure to encourage oxygen to dissolve into the thin layer of water coating the trickle filter media. Totally immersed fluidised beds have an oxygen reserve present in the water. The author has installed his own small fluidised bed filter of his own design in the sump of a Thiel Platinum trickle filter as a piece of test equipment to handle any future power failures."


taken from http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/manage...ed_Filters.html

also take a look at this page for incorporating one with a sump.
http://www.reeftime.com/diy-reef-projects/...lter-fbf/14.htm

and this one for building your own acrilic one
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_fbf.php


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

Thanks, I've actually seen those sites before a while back, the last 2 at least. I might end up trying a fbf somewhere down the line, but since I already have these bio balls I figured why not just use them.


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## BOy2K (Oct 24, 2007)

StryfeMP said:


> Thanks, I've actually seen those sites before a while back, the last 2 at least. I might end up trying a fbf somewhere down the line, but since I already have these bio balls I figured why not just use them.


np mate, keep me posted on how your sump turns out.
i will report on my FBF as time goes on


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