Diff between Ceramic and Bioballs

[xrayjeeper83]

Can anyone explain(dumb it down) to me the difference between Ceramic Pieces and Bioballs? And not the obvious that they are different material. As in does one do better then the other or something?

[sevenyearnight]

My *guess* is the difference is porosity. I imagine that the plastic, although its shape provides lots of outer surface area, is probably not porous. The ceramic pieces are porous, and would seem to have more surface area in a more compact form. I would guess that the amount of surface area compared between the two of equal amounts, if not by weight, but by volume, the ceramic pieces would have more surface area.

[xrayjeeper83]

that makes sense. But then why use bioballs and ceramic in the same filter?

[sevenyearnight]

Affirmative action?

[xrayjeeper83]

LMAO

[RTR]

Not all ceramic or all bioballs are equal.

Many ceramics have excellent surfaces for bacterial attachment, so offer a "friendly" or hospitable sutface for bacterial growth in decent current areas such as canisters, W/Ds and HOBs (the aerobic nitrogen cycle bacteria are all oxygen users).

But some bioballs also have friendly, hospitable surfaces for bacteria. They may in fact have more cognizable (usable) surface area per unit volume than similar ceramics, so may in fact be more efficient - if eficiency is significant (it commonly is in external filtersif they are used for both bio- and mechanical filtration).

Some ceramics are microporous - i.e., they have pores and channels into and through them. These in theory may be able to denitrify (reduce nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia to nitrogen gas). These unfortunately do clog with time and lose this function, so commonly need partial replacement at some interval. To me this is not very useful, so I never use such media.

Some bio-balls are sponges. I do use a lot of sponge media (mainly for mechanical filtration, but some for both mechanical and biofiltration), but not sponge bioballs - to me they are a product looking to do two different jobs at once, and they are not particularly good at either.

For large tanks (>100 US gallons) I always use sumps, and commonly use large plastic bio-balls in W/Ds. Mid-sized tanks (20-75 gallons) I tend to use canisters with small plastic bio-balls with sponge prefilters on the canister intakes to protect the bacteria in the canister. The pre-filters are rinsed at least weekly, the canister back-flushed monthly. Similar set-ups may be used on large tanks at times. Small tanks (under 20 gallons) tend to have sponge biofilters and may use mixed mechanical and biofiltration air-driven filters - the media in those is rinsed weekly in aged water.

The above are all for FW and light BW tanks. SW for me does not use biofiltration so the above does not apply.

HTH

[sevenyearnight]

LMAO

Yeah...safe to say I've fulfilled the "dumb" in your request.

[xrayjeeper83]

So RTR you would suggest for a 75g with a canister to put sponge and bioballs

[RTR]

My canisters are separated, one or the other. I became addicted to multifiltering decades ago and "cure" is highly unlikely at this point.

For mid-sized tanks I use 3-5 filters per tank, and use a lot of sumps or specialized support tanks linked to displays. We will not discuss what I do on large tanks in detail, but basically the same, just larger units. Folks do not readily grasp that they are all low time-consuming upkeep setups. I run more tanks tahn most folks - or did in the past, I a cutting down. I also spend less time than most folks tending my tanks. I do enjoy working on the tanks, but I like watching them better.

There are articles which will hopefully be restored to the library soon detailing my techniques, but I spend more time planning than I do installing, and much more time watching than working on tanks. I plan on a tank running ~10 years, but some bore me faster than that. Some run over 20 years before they really need full re-do.

Don't forget that I learned how to keep tanks ovber 50 years ago. If I am still learning, it is polishing techniques, not learning them as new. Current SW practices are much newer than that, and are far superior and eventually a lot cheaper long-term than the way we used to work, but tank maintenance really should and needs to be easy or it is less likely to get do\ne. When the chores are relatively quick and painless, they get done without thought.

How long does it take you to brush your teeth? That is about my canister cleaning time. I really like idiot-proof setups. They are almost all I do. I usually have technical variants running and some of those I do adopt as standard. If it is faster and easier and works better for me, I do it that way.

I like my toys and enjoy playing with them, provided i don't have to think too much while doing chores. Over decades, equipment should be cheap. Time is irreplaceable.

Folks think that canisters are costly - most on mine are over 20 years old, some twice that and still in routine daily service. I just wish that cars and household appliances lasted the same time and operated so inexpensively.

HTH