Bag of ceramic tubes in rsm 250

fellers

fellers

Member
Do I need the bag of ceramic bio thingys :) Is their something better I can put in there?
I put my chemi pure elite and purigen above that bag sitting on the rack.
But that does not seem like it is getting the best flow.
What do you guys with this situation?
What is the best thing for me to do?
My tank has been up for 2 1/2 yrs now.
 
clownfishheaven

clownfishheaven

Member
You don't and the bag seems to trap a lot of detritus. When I took mine out it was of a thick black coffee color and reduced the flow greatly.
 
Bathtub

Bathtub

Member
daft question- you do clean in in old water every now and again yeah? If so (and I am being controversial here....) you should have aerobic bacteria that are generally good in reducing the super nasty ammonia to nitrates.
if you are using a live rock setup, it a way more complex cycle, and you can look at slowly phasing out, and a nitrate reduction overall ( I would say) ...
oh head on block now...
 
Reefmack

Reefmack

NaClH2O Addicted
PREMIUM
I pulled my ceramics out after the first 3 months and my nitrates dropped nicely. Some pull them out 1/2 at a time so as not to upset things. My JBJ tank says do not even start up with them if it's a reef tank - nitrate generators. I don't think they really support much anaerobic bacteria that are needed to get rid of nitrates. Live rock is much better at that.
 
clownfishheaven

clownfishheaven

Member
fellers said:
Do I need the bag of ceramic bio thingys :) Is their something better I can put in there?
I put my chemi pure elite and purigen above that bag sitting on the rack.
But that does not seem like it is getting the best flow.
What do you guys with this situation?
What is the best thing for me to do?
My tank has been up for 2 1/2 yrs now.
Click to expand...

Your tank has been up for long enough so you should be fine taking it out outright providing that you have enough live rocks.
 
fellers

fellers

Member
Bathtub said:
daft question- you do clean in in old water every now and again yeah? If so (and I am being controversial here....) you should have aerobic bacteria that are generally good in reducing the super nasty ammonia to nitrates.
if you are using a live rock setup, it a way more complex cycle, and you can look at slowly phasing out, and a nitrate reduction overall ( I would say) ...
oh head on block now...
Click to expand...
I can't quite make full sense of certain parts of your response. However I do clean the bag and sponges etc with water I take out during water changes every time.
There is no ammonia ever in my tank when I test. Nitrates like usual to around 15 before I change every 2 weeks to dilute the pollute.
I am definately using live rock and sand. Around a 3 to 4" deep bed and the bed is around 9 months old after slowly changing, adding, etc; over time.
I have around 90 lbs of LR in there.
And what does "oh head on block now" mean?
 
Bathtub

Bathtub

Member
With the tank set up as you have described then, I would say just take a few out with water changes over time. I think they are useful when initially setting up the tank to help the aerobic bacteria- i.e. keeping ammonia and nitrites at zero and converting all to nitrates. Now you are stable, leaving it to the rock (which has a way more complex redox process) and taking the media out should allow the nitrates to come down as well....
head on block was a tongue in cheek comment as what i said was a bit controversial - missed the smiley sorry :)
good luck !
 
fruit bat

fruit bat

Member
I never used them at all when we upgraded to the Max250. When i used them in the 130 we had a terrible Nitrate spike. We use Rowaphos and Chemi pure elite in the chamber and rinse both foam filters in (old) tank water each week when we do a minimum 10% water change.
 
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