Best Biological Media?

harbar2

New member
I have been using bio-balls but was wondering what else is out there and that is the best
for a saltwater tank. So far I've heard of ceramic rings but I don't know how good/reliable they are though.
 
You need to dump the bioballs if you're going to have coral. They will ultimately create more nitrates than they remove. Tell us about our tank. How big? How much rock, etc.
 
I have a 45 gallon cube, media reactor with phosphate,with I would say 25 pounds of live rock and live sand. Livestock: Flame Angelfish, Yellow Tang, Pajama Cardinal, 2 Maroon Clownfish. Coral: Hammer, Meat, Duncan, Xenia, Zoanthids, Green Brain, Acan, Star Polyp. I was thinking about setting up another tank and I know that Bio-Balls aren't the best but was wondering what the ideal/best sump filter media would be. I didn't know if I should throw in some live plants in the sump as well, just curious what's the best out there. And say if I just had fish, what would be the ideal media for them.
 
Yep, the best filtration would be the live rock(1-2lbs per gal) and sand... and you can place rock rubble and cheato(macro algae) in the sump.
 
If it was just fish-only, then I'd suggest biopellets. I run pellets with occassional carbon and gfo in my fowler and the param's are perfect without wc's. However, only experienced reefers should consider pellets in a reef tank.
 
matrix is becomming a popular alternative to rock rubble, I am a fan of it, another possible bio substrate are ceramic plates like these:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-plate.html

which i use in my frag tank so i dont have live rock cluttering it up and potentially harboring unseen pests. Other than that the live rock is your main biofilter.

oh and
Tang-Police.jpg
 
K1 FTW!

No nitrate factory, and over 1000x the surface area of live rock. Just needs a light tumble and some time to seed, and you've got a self-cleaning biological media.

Way simpler than bio-pellets, no need to replenish, and no need to scrub.
 
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