Do you guys clean your bio-bale?

[DebbieC]

The instructions on my protein skimmer communicate to clean the bio-bale in salt water once every 4 months. The guy at the pet shop said never to do that....it would remove the biological filter that had set up in my protein skimmer. I've also read that if the power goes out for more than a few hours...the bilogical filter within protein skimmers will be wiped out. This kindof seems to back the pet shop guy. Also..reading the post on the hair algae problem...several of you guys stated not to buy a sand sifter...that it would eat all of the critters we all work so hard to harvest in our sand bed. This makes sense as well... I've gotten a bit attached to my Gobie (Valenciennea puellaris). Sounds like I need to take him back.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

Im assuming you have a bak pak skimmer

Technically if you wash the bio bail you will remove the beneficial bacteria in it so he is right sort of but...

if you have live rock in your tank and a sand bed this is acting as a biological filter anyway and you dont need the bio bail at all provided you have enough rock and it has cycled

I just removed my bio bail and tossed it when i got my bakpak as uneccessary Im only using mine as a skimmer. Bak Pak also makes a modle 2r which is a reff ready modle without the bio bail a longer return tube and a sponge fliter/bubble trap

I have no filtration except the skimmer and rock on my tank but before you remove it how about some more info as far as tank setup is concerned i.e size rock poundage ect.

just some info hope it helps

_________________
BMW F800S

 

[esmithiii]

I thought the balls in the skimmer were for controlling foam rise, not biological filtration... I could be wrong. My skimmer doesn't use them.

E

 

[rBeOeBf]

If you use the bio-bale, I think it is a good idea to rinse it every once in a while with tank water. You don't want to scrub it clean though. I rinsed mine with tank water removed for a water change by putting the water and bio-bale in a bucket and gently swishing it around a bit with my hand to remove any loose debris. This presserves most of the beneficial bacteria, while removing the decomposing junk trapped in the bio-bale. I eventually removed the bio-bale altogether once I had a sand bed and plenty of live rock in the tank to handle the biological filtration.

Bob