Biological media
- Thread starter Kedron1977
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Peter C
Community Member
Personally I don't think you can have too much biomedia. That being said it's more about how well your media is seeded and running rather than how much you have. I would say quality over quantity when it comes to bio but quantity does play a roll. Hope this helps!
livinlifeinBKK
5000 Club Member
Instead of all the synthetic substrate for biological filtration, why not a few chunks of some natural live rock? High quality live rock from the ocean would would provide more biodiversity and biological filtration than all the man made biomedia combined and be the idea substrate
fryman
Active Member
I don't think you can have too much but I do think just adding more doesn't necessarily do anything. You need to have some flow through the biomedia or it doesn't do much. Also I've found the seachem matrix biomedia (looks like fine-pore pumice stone) to work much better than those ceramic rings. At least for nitrate reduction purposes.
Randy Holmes-Farley
Reef Chemist
Staff member
Super Moderator
Excellence Award
Expert Contributor
Article Contributor
R2R Research
My Tank Thread
Certainly you can have too much denitrifying media if nitrate is too low.
As to nitrifying capacity, I’m skeptical whether any is useful. Elevated ammonia is not a concern in a cycled reef tank, and driving it lower and lower may be suboptimal since organism such as corals and macroalgae may prefer it to nitrate.
As to nitrifying capacity, I’m skeptical whether any is useful. Elevated ammonia is not a concern in a cycled reef tank, and driving it lower and lower may be suboptimal since organism such as corals and macroalgae may prefer it to nitrate.
regarding extra biomedia beyond what the live rocks alone carry, not counting sandbed surface area contributions:
more is not always better, more is more cleaning hassle.
if you let channels get plugged up you defeat the purpose of the installation, so you need to keep detritus clean to access the surface area in what you paid for
if you spend time keeping channels open in biomedia that wouldn't be a help to your tank in any circumstance, then the whole installation notion is in question...
nearly all reefs you see are orders beyond the surface area they need for bioload, daily feeding, accumulation and even occasional fish losses without toxicity threshold reached yet when someone goes on vacation, and a fish dies due to disease or hardware issue, what does every post say:
I came home to a wiped out tank. all their surface area wasn't enough to overcome a full fish kill anyway, so having way less than the amount wouldnt matter.
I have never seen any display reef tank with too little surface area such that supplementation was needed or would have mattered in any setting.
if my tank was in a power outage setting, I'd want the lesser surface area design not the maximum
oxygen competition against fish in the water column.... aerobic filter bacteria are a notable user of oxygen in the system and while being unhelpful during the running phase though not harmful, they're simply extra systemic loading during stress events.
during temp spikes I 100% for sure would want a zero accumulation, low surface area system. there are many settings where the extra surface area is not ideal at all in my opinion.
more is not always better, more is more cleaning hassle.
if you let channels get plugged up you defeat the purpose of the installation, so you need to keep detritus clean to access the surface area in what you paid for
if you spend time keeping channels open in biomedia that wouldn't be a help to your tank in any circumstance, then the whole installation notion is in question...
nearly all reefs you see are orders beyond the surface area they need for bioload, daily feeding, accumulation and even occasional fish losses without toxicity threshold reached yet when someone goes on vacation, and a fish dies due to disease or hardware issue, what does every post say:
I came home to a wiped out tank. all their surface area wasn't enough to overcome a full fish kill anyway, so having way less than the amount wouldnt matter.
I have never seen any display reef tank with too little surface area such that supplementation was needed or would have mattered in any setting.
if my tank was in a power outage setting, I'd want the lesser surface area design not the maximum
oxygen competition against fish in the water column.... aerobic filter bacteria are a notable user of oxygen in the system and while being unhelpful during the running phase though not harmful, they're simply extra systemic loading during stress events.
during temp spikes I 100% for sure would want a zero accumulation, low surface area system. there are many settings where the extra surface area is not ideal at all in my opinion.
Last edited:
