One of the most important aspects of an aquarium is having lots of surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow on. There are several ways to achieve this, but the information here will center around MarinePure Filtration Ceramic Media. Here, you can find everything you need to know about this outstanding product.
Beneficial Bacteria
If you've spent any amount of time in the aquarium hobby, you've surely heard of the phrase "beneficial bacteria". If not, you have definitely seen the effects of it. Beneficial bacteria is what processes the ammonia and nitrites in your water (which are byproducts of fish waste and left of food) into nitrates and phosphates. Then, the nitrates and phosphates are exported out of the aquarium via macroalgae, protein skimmer, GFO, etc. There are generally two types of beneficial bacteria: nitrifying and denitrifying bacterial. Nitrifying bacteria turns ammonia and nitrites into nitrate. Denitrifying bacteria convert the nitrates into gas which then exits the aquarium. Both of these types are important. As with a real ecosystem, the more beneficial bacteria there is, the more stable the aquarium will be in terms of nutrients. Stability is the key for saltwater aquariums, which is why having enough beneficial bacteria is important.
How do you get beneficial bacteria in your aquarium? Your tank will naturally build a population of bacteria, but you can introduce products such as
Turbo Start 900 to speed up the process. Regardless of how much bacteria you add to the aquarium, the bacteria needs space to live and populate.
Surface Area
To have space for beneficial bacteria to grow, you need surface area. This surface area can come from several places. First and most obvious, is the rock and sand in your aquarium. A large portion of your aquarium is rock and sand (unless your prefer bare bottom tanks). The outside of your rocks offers lots of surface area, but the inside should provide a lot as well. This is why it is recommended that you avoid dense rock. The more porous your rocks are, the better.
Now, where else can you create more surface area? Most tanks have a dedicated area in the filtration system for bio media. Bio media can range from mud to plastic balls to normal rock. There are a lot of options for this, and it is up to you to decide what is best for your aquarium.
One of the most important foundations of your aquarium is surface area. More surface area will increase the bio load of your system, which means your tank will be able to handle more fish or more nutrients in general. It also generates more stability, which again, is crucial for keeping corals, especially sensitive ones.
There are several popular ways to increase surface area. All of them can be and have been used successfully. Are there options that are better than others? That's up to you to decide.
Let's first talk about what are referred to as "bio balls". These are plastic spheres that are fairly popular in both the saltwater and freshwater aquarium hobby. The advantage to this media type is that it is usually cheaper than other options. However, this options is not commonly regarded as the best option in the saltwater aquarium hobby. They simply do not offer the most amount of surface area.
Most hobbyists use some form of porous rock in their filtration to create more surface area. This works well, but normal rock is usually not that space efficient. A pile of rocks will have much more empty space than MarinePure media. Now, if you have a huge sump that makes utilizing space efficiently pointless, then normal rocks work great. For most sumps, however, space is very limited.
MarinePure ceramic media is highly regarded as the best form of bio media. It is extremely porous and space efficient. MarinePure media can create more surface area in a given space than the other methods. In the end, that's the most important factor, right? While plastic bio balls might seem cheaper because you can "fill" a space for less money, they do not offer nearly as much surface area as that same space filled with MarinePure media. In case you are still on the edge about bio-balls and ceramic media, a MarinePure cube has the same surface area as 1,350 1.5 inch bio balls. Yes, that's right: one MarinePure cube equals 1,350 bio balls. Numbers don't lie, people!
Now that you hopefully understand the differences between some common options of bio media and why MarinePure Media is so popular, let's talk more about the latter media.
MarinePure Ceramic Media is great for several reasons other than the ones already mentioned. First, MarinePure is completely reef safe and chemically stable. Unlike true live rock, it is dry, making it completely and totally free of any pests. While live rock has its time and place, avoiding pests is crucial, especially for reef aquariums with lots of coral. Another great thing about MarinePure Media is that it can be used in a wide variety of tanks. It can be used in a tiny 10 gallon tank all the way up to a tank that is hundred of gallons. This means you can also reuse MarinePure Media when you upgrade to a larger aquarium.
By the way, if you want to upgrade to a larger aquarium, check out these awesome
CADE aquariums.
MarinePure Ceramic Media makes for a fantastic copepods habitat. So, not only are you making your aquarium more biodiverse with beneficial bacteria, but you are also increasing the biodiversity of microscopic inverts. This will make your aquarium even more stable. Also, if there is that special finicky fish that you just have to have, this ceramic media will help keep your copepod population stable to provide food for that fish.
This awesome media comes in several different forms to meet whatever needs you have. It is up to you to determine what shape is best for your aquarium. It depends on the size of your aquarium and your preference.
The
1.5 inch spheres are a sort of middle ground, as they can work for the widest range of tanks. They are especially great for smaller aquariums with a filtration section in the back of the tank. This option can also work well for a larger aquarium with a small sump. These spheres are also perfect for adding more surface area here and there.
The smallest form is the
MarinePure GEMS. This media is 3/4 of an inch. It is great for nano aquariums, possibly the best option for this style of tank. The shape is arguably the most interesting, if that's something you care about. While you can certainly use this media in a larger tank, some of the other options might make more sense.
MarinePure Plates are the largest option. This from is best for the largest sumps and aquariums. There are "plates" that are 8x8x1 inches and "blocks" that are 8x8x4 inches. The plates contain 5,250 sq ft of surface area per plate. The blocks contain 23,000 sq ft of surface area per block. That is astonishing!
MarinePure Ceramic Media can be used anywhere in the aquarium. You can use the plates as protein skimmer stands even! They are incredibly simple to use but equally as effective for keeping your tank full of beneficial bacteria and copepods.