Marine balls or media blocks?

[Notsolostfish]

Right now my 44 gsllons tank is cycling, and i only have in the sump the socks, and sponge. Do i need media balls or a block or anything? Its fishless cycle

 

[Lavey29]

Right now my 44 gsllons tank is cycling, and i only have in the sump the socks, and sponge. Do i need media balls or a block or anything? Its fishless cycle

I use marine pure spheres and rock rubble in mine. You want something for the bacteria to colonize.

 

[Ufjd144]

I use the marine pure blocks i bought online a few years ago.

 

[shakacuz]

currently use the marine pure blocks, cubes, and balls. when i finally transfer to my 75, i will be using maxspect bio blocks and balls.

you should add them now before you add any fish so they can have the beneficial bacteria colonize them.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I like the hollow, cylindrical white porous ceramic-like pieces that you use in a mesh bag. They don’t break down and disintegrate like the blocks can become brittle and do.

 

[old salt reefer]

I use SeaChem Matrix in a mesh bag.

 

[Spare time]

Its not needed but a little bag of something like seachem matrix is handy if you want to seed a new tank later

 

[SPS2020]

Matrix for me as well. Easy to pull out and clean for detritus removal. Depending upon the quality and quantity of aquascape material (live rock, etc.) you may not need to bother.

 

[encrustingacro]

I have marinepure crystals in the back chamber of my AIO. I would recommend using ceramic media over plastic bioballs, because ceramic media has a lot more surface area. I would also not recommend using any kind of mechanical or chemical filtration during cycling, as beneficial bacteria could colonize on the filtration media, and washing or changing out the media would take away some of the beneficial bacteria and could cause imbalances in your tank.

 

[Uncle99]

If you have sufficient rock in your display, you don’t have to add anything right now.
Blocks, or sphere in a bag, provide a ridiculous amount of surface area if ya need it.