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MariahABMB96

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Hi everyone, I just wanted to get your opinions on this stocking list for my 92 gallon aquarium. I want to make sure I am not overstocking and I like getting peoples' opinions on things like this :) It's a corner with about 90-100 lbs of live rock, a sump with bio-ball filtration and an Octopus 1000sss skimmer. My sand bed is about 2-3 inches thick. Here's the fish list (I already have the first five): Canary wrasse, royal gramma, 2 ocellaris clownfish, tomini tang, 2 firefish, sand-sifting diamond watchman goby, allen's damsel, and a mandarin dragonet. This would be the order I would add them as well. Does anyone have experience with the allen's damsel? I've read from several sources they are very peaceful but like I said, I like getting peoples' opinions :) Thanks! I also want a lot of corals so is this an appropriate amount of fish?
 
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Sounds like a good amount of fish. I would add them slowly over time to keep from a major fluctuation in waste levels and therefor Nitrates.

You will want to make sure that if you get 2 fire fish they are a pair. I think 2 males or 2 females will not get a along and one will take out the other. The other option is a large group. I tried 2 and that lasted about a week.
 
MariahABMB96 said:
What would be 'maintaing' bio balls? What do you do to them?
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Over time you will notice crud collecting under the bio chamber that needs to be cleaned... also i would remove 90% of the balls and boil them to restart them... again in my fish only system i had success with this method
 
madscientist1 said:
Over time you will notice crud collecting under the bio chamber that needs to be cleaned... also i would remove 90% of the balls and boil them to restart them... again in my fish only system i had success with this method
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My aquarium is a reef and would that create a mini cycle? Or maybe not because of the live rock? Also, how often would you do this? Thanks for the help!
 
How often did you do clean them though? I have had success with them and I do not intend to stop using them :) I think they're great and any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
 
I also would recommend not using them in a system with live rock. Better off taking them out of your sump and replacing with LR rubble. If you do use them, make sure you take a portion of the bioballs out each week and give them a good rinsing, otherwise your nitrates will get out of conrol.
 
I have been running the bio balls for about 3 or so months with stunning results... no cleaning of them with 0 nitrates so maybe I am a special case LOL :rotflmao:
 
i have used bio balls in all my reefs(over 20 years. i also do nothing normal so remember that. i never do any additives, just food). i also like them. honestly i clean then about every 6 months. i wash them out in the tub. ask my wife . she loves that but i also run about 300lbs of live rock in my 125g so when i wash the balls so it doesn't create a problem with cycles.
 
Bio balls are awesome as converting Amonia to Nitrites to Nitrates. In a fish only this is good becasue fish produce lots of Amonia and are not particularly sensative to Nitrates. In a reef, Nitrates are the problem. Corals and inverts are very sensative to Nitrates. So using Bio Balls for a reef is not the best solution unless you have a very efficient way to remove nitrates.

Live rock is a great surface to house multiple bacteria to eliminate Amonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates. Many reefers have found success using a good skimmer to get out all of the nutrients they can before they start to decompose, and then the live rock does the rest.

I too used bio balls with much success for many years. They work good for what they are intended for. They do tend to build up waste, and if you still want to try a wet/dry type biological material there are several types of new media that will work better without the surface being clogged up.
 
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MariahABMB96 said:
I have been running the bio balls for about 3 or so months with stunning results... no cleaning of them with 0 nitrates so maybe I am a special case LOL :rotflmao:
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3 months is a short period of time, you can't really judge in that amount of time. Once you hit about the 18month mark is when you should see true colors. By that time and you have no real algae issues then I'd declare success.

My beef with bio balls in a reef setup is that they are too efficient at converting organics waste into dissolved organics. So much that it can convert before a skimmer has chance to export. Once becomes dissolved organics, skimmer can't really remove. So you would need methods of removing dissolved organics. Providing enough anerobic zones is one way so it definately can be possible. Just too early to know.

Liverock should provide adequate filtration to where bio-balls should be redundant in a reef tank anyways.
 
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