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Wet/dry bioballs or live rock

Posted 11-24-2007 at 03:44 PM by kgh9555
I am getting confused about bios balls vs. live rock. I have a 150 gallon tank, cycling is complete. I have about 125 lbs of live rock and 2" of live sand. We place 1 firefish, 1 damsel, 1 pink wrasse and 1 sweet lip. My son also got a chocolate chip star fish, which is going back for I hear they are too aggressive.

I am also purchasing an RO/DI water filter system and will make my own salt water for changes.

I am concerned about the bioballs. I have been told to keep them clean and they will fine. I have heard that they cause more issues than help and to replace them with live rock. What type of live rock (big or small). I am running a Mag 950 gph pump, is that enough? I am also installing 2 power heads (koralia 850 ghp). We want to be able to place corals, clams and ... in the tank but I really need to know about the filtration system. I also don’t know what type of skimmer to place in the sump. I have an air pump so I can use that type of skimmer if necessary but what size. If I get rate for a 150 gallon tank, it is huge for the sump.

If anyone has information on this and PICTURES on a sump using live rock instead of bioballs, I would really appreciate seeing it.

Thanks
Ken
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Wrasse lady's Avatar

Wrasse Lady

My opinion is BIO balls are good if you want added nutrients for growing algaes, worms, etc., which can be a nice "Dutch" style tank, but not if you want to keep stoney corals. I have a hard enough time with macro algae and I don't even have bio balls - lots of live rock and a refugium seems to be the most popular if you want to keep "stonies" - hope that helps.

Did you know "sweetlips" is cute when small - but grows HUGE and not so cute when an adult - just so you know.

Have fun!
Posted 01-23-2008 at 07:25 PM by Wrasse lady Wrasse lady is offline
 
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