Ceramic media, more bad than good?

[IronChefItaly]

Carbon dosing, ceramic media and a good skimmer work wonders together. Anyone who says differently isn't educated.

 

[Nanofreak79]

I'm using a decent amount of rock, biopellets, matrix and a good skiimmer! Oh and a filter sock as well. I think it is just fine to use ceramic media if you understand it and how works and lasts at peak performance.

[gus6464]

 

Could you tell me more about prodibio? I am currently setting up a 2.5 gallon pico for SPS. Originally I was going to do a bare bottom tank using a pico biopellet reactor and skimmer (an experiment) but the method you're using sounds appealing. I looked it up and there is a Prodibio nano kit. What additives other than coral snow do you use, and how much and how often do you dose?

 

So this is my current setup.

 

3L of matrix in my sump.

 

I started with 2 vials of biodigest on my 65G display, 15G sump. Now I just do 1 vial a week when I clean the skimmer, and filter socks. The continuous seeding of vials is not really important as once the bacteria spreads there will be more than enough.

 

Every day I pour some home made coral snow in my tank. The coral snow consists of this:

 

and RODI water. That one bag is enough to make gallons of the stuff and dirt cheap.

 

 

I have yet to automate my coral snow dosing but I need a stirrer as you have to shake the stuff before dropping in the tank. If I was going on vacation for a couple of weeks I would just bring my reactor online with only carbon.

 

My phosphate has never been higher than 0.04 and that was when I first started. Nitrate is around 5 if the color chart on API is to be believed. My SPS colors are vibrant though so there's no need to doubt.

[Ivery]

I use matrix in my reef and seahorse tanks. I keep it in bags. So I can lift and shake in water change buckets.

[aquageek]

Absolutely use it, don't listen to people who say other wise. Just keep it clean. If you have good mechanical filtration then I don't see it ever being a problem. Just rinse it occasionally.

 

I keep mine in the return chamber with my pump.

[R_MC]

You should treat ceramic media like extremely porous, and therefore, extremely biologically effective live rock. Any benefits you'd expect to get from LR filtration you will get from ceramic media. It's likely that the ceramic media is significantly more effective. If you're worried about the media becoming a "nitrate factor" just dose organic carbon and a bacterial culture to clean it up. If the media gets clogged after 6 months just rinse it out with some RO or fresh salt water. The only "nitrate factory" filtration method is a wet dry filter as it will only produce colonies of aerobic nitrifying bacteria and not the denitrifying type present in low oxygen zones within the media.

 

Here's a recent video I put together on how you can use the MarinePure ceramic media as a substitute for huge amounts of live rock:

[pompeyjohn]

Rob, how is the block doing now? Also did I hear correctly that you are dosing 30ml of vinegar daily?!