Bio Ball Replacement
By Doug Lake
Although protein skimmers have taken over as the premiere form of waste removal and renitrification, many still use "wet dry"filters both alone and in conjuction with protein skimmers.
My DIY tip is to use plastic, hollow practice golf balls in place of "Bio-Balls". I remember seeing bio-balls for $40 a gallon. At the time, I was a grad student, had no money and thought $40 was too much to pay for a substrate for Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter. Practice golf balls worked just fine in my wet dry filter and I'm sure the bacteria didn't notice the difference.
