Please Help Me Understand The Difference Between Live Rock And Ceramic Media

[Nonuser]

No I'm not trying to be funny.

But aren't both media that can absorb Phosphates and then leach them back into the aquarium?

Could you possible have high phosphates due to having Ceramic media in your sump sucking up the phosphates and storing them?

I had sever liters of Ceramic media in my sump and it was just trapping the detritus and having a more difficult time of maintaining water chemistry. I have to get some Filter bags for it.

 

[dale]

they are supposed to be similar with the ceramic being engineered to be more efficient than the lr... without proper flow neither will work well , both are meant to filter the nutrients already dissolved in the water, any "chuncks caught in either will not be "processed" well and needs to go through a cuc first for maximum efficiency..

 

[dale]

ceramic and lr are surface areas for bacteria to grow on..

 

[Nonuser]

Great info, I understand that both LR and Ceramic media have surface area that are for bacterial growth and that media is exponential more porous and can be infused with more bacteria. But with that said should it not also be able to hold onto PO4?

My understanding is that LR can store po4 and then leach out into tank would that not be the same with media?

 

[dale]

that part is still up for debate i think but most people believe that po4 is in the rock, some believe it is just what is trapped in the organic material that was living on or in the rock that is now dead giving off its stored po4.. so yes i believe it can...

 

[dale]

yes i think it would be similar to lr ...

 

[Nonuser]

Then if ceramic media contains good nitrifying bacteria then depending on how it's cleaned could the killing of a large amount of bacteria create a negative effect on the water chemistry.

I guess what I'm interested in what effects does the media have and what is the best way to maintain it? If not maintained properly then it may cause more issues than benefits.

Also then great multi level flow around LR trying to prevent detritus.

But then sand beds are used for the same purpose. Bacteria lives in the live sand and is thought to have benefits but often thought that little disturbance is best.

So would the media be best left undisturbed?

 

[dale]

ahhh, there are a LOT of different critters living in your sandbed, incl your cuc..

yes, if you dont have proper flow around your lr, its not doing its job...

as far as i know, the best way to maintain the ceramic balls, cylinders, hollow cylinders etc.. is to just shake them around in the water you removed for a water change... and yes doing something to kill the bacteria would be bad..

of course with everything else , sombody else may have completely diff answers and solutions...

 

[Poseidon]

Good conversation guys, you both are right, I know a key with bio balls is to keep them tumbling.
It's the same principle as keeping a sponge in your sump remove when you setup a QT, full of the good bacteria

Any decaying organic matter that's sitting in dead spots, in the tank or in the sump is going to create po4


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[AdInfinitum]

Bear in mind that at the end of the day PO4 is not really what people are really concerned about. Regardless the source it is so easily stripped from the water chemically that it is no longer a serious focus.

The use of ceramic media, DSB, live rock etc. revolves around nitrate control and creating sufficient anoxic regions to maintain high water quality without the instability caused by large volume water changes needed to remove and dilute nitrate since bio pellets are not an entirely issue free solution and dinitrators have risks associated with them.

 

[AdInfinitum]

BTW PO4 will bond loosely with calcium carbonate (live rock, aragonite sand...etc). However the ceramic media is chemically pretty inert. These products are coming back in style as people move away from DT's with the big rock walls and mounds and opt for more open space so denitrifying needs to happen elsewhere...