Cleaning bio media

[brandon429]

**using biomedia to catch suspended materials is just fine as a use. no harm no foul there for sure. the main point is you can't lose a tank's cycle by adding to or subtracting incidental surface area/extra stuff.

given that usage mode, the most thorough rinse is the best one/you are trying to evacuate mud that it caught. rinse to the bone. no degree of bacteria preservation is required on the media, nor is it beneficial

all the extra surface area we pack in is one reason reef tanks die so fast during outages. 02 becomes the liability, not ammonia. all those extra filter bac are aerobes taxing out 02 in a challenge setup in competition with fish and other respiring animals. massive orders of surface area are tolerated in a reef tank bc we have enough 02 to share during normal running times.

 

[lost66]

extra media isn’t helpful in a reef tank, it’s for freshwater use where surfaces are round and smooth and low surface area

the rocks in a reef display handle everything

I cannot agree more.

 

[brandon429]

The sum total reason this tenet is beneficial to inspect is because it will empower any reefer to be in full control of their cycle 100% of the time without any ammonia testing. every move you make with a $5K reef investment will be calculated and deliberate, never unsure.

total cycle control skill means full control of the starting cycle during design (you will know the cycle's end date before the reef is even created, we know the ready dates for all modes of cycling without tests this is how reef conventions all start on a given date with their demo tanks) and you'll be able to move, transfer, upgrade downgrade change sandbed and scapes in any reef without loss and without ammonia or nitrite testing.

that's total cycle control.

to be able to predict what ammonia does in a reef tank, and will not do, is a $ money saving skill that can't be understated. every month we prevent about a grand in fear-based bottle bac sales within updated cycling science threads because given the old rules everyone's rushing out to replace supposed dead bacteria when their nh4 test kit does not show zero.

cycle control moves reef markets, determines who's tanks live and die during moves/upgrades/transfers

this is a very money-impacting rule to be inspecting/ how much surface area is ideal for a reef tank and how does the surface area work after installation


there's one new test the hobby needs and no seneye owners have done this yet, we need the data:

set up a test 40 breeder with a stack of common cycled ready reef rocks in the center. put in some test chromis or clowns, show the seneye reading thousandths ppm nh3 the whole time to prove baselining of the meter.

then begin removing display rocks until the bioload causes the nh3 to become .0x in the high hundredths ppm, and give pics along the way how much rock reduction that took to cause. The first real breakthrough in reeftank surface area studies will come along at that point.

prediction: if it's in the center of the tank I bet 10% of the rock we use still runs our whole bioload

I predict we all use 90% more rocks than needed even for a grip of fish.