The best Biomedia, period.

[viejafish]

I have 7.5ppm nitrate tap water, my tank nitrate have been around 10 ppm. With 10% water change bi monthly. Half stocked and fed daily. 1 cu/ft sand/ pumice to 35 gallons of water. Still tinkering with the plumbing a bit, but it seams to be working.

Your test kit is not working right. If your tap water is 7.5 ppm, and doing only 10% WC bimonthly, and your tank water is only 10 ppm.

HOBs are for tanks up to like 100g appropriately stocked and fed conservatively.

You can hang 4 double size HOBs on 6 ft 125 to 200 g tanks for a combined flow of at least 1400 gph or 7X to 10X turn over rate. Additionally, you can add circulation pumps inside the tank to increase the flow. I use 3 Penquin 350 in my heavily loaded 125g and that's all I need.

And take rocks...not all are porous. Many aquarium safe rocks are not very porous at all so a bio-mass is left to populate the surface only. Plastic decor will also provide surface area.....but in the end, large tanks with lots of fish will require some sort of man made bio-media

Life rock isn't porous as bio growth will seal the surface just like live sand is only aerobic on the surface 1/2 inch. The undulating surface of rock and substrate provide many times more bb growth than bare bottom tank. All you need to provide is good flow over the life sand and rock. Bare bottom tank may need external bio media but it doesn't necessarily have to be man made. Many reef systems place life rock in the sump.

 

[DIFish]

Your test kit is not working right. If your tap water is 7.5 ppm, and doing only 10% WC bimonthly, and your tank water is only 10 ppm

Actually, based on his setup and filtration, I think that his results are entirely possible. I think water changes are commonly conceived as being the only way to truly reduce nitrates in ones aquarium. While they do help, and are beneficial in a variety of ways, there are other options to achieve low nitrates. If I read his recent post correctly, he runs a very lightly stocked tank with a filter that is bigger than his tank, as well as a very interesting denitrator that encourages the growth of anaerobic bacteria. Essentially, he is forcing nature do its job, minimal water changes required.

 

[Benno87]

If you are planning on rays and discus there really is no way around doing frequent water changes no matter what bio media you use. It's the only way to reduce nitrates as far as I'm concerned, and why not do them when they make your fish look so much better and grow so much quicker?

 

[markstrimaran]

I think if I had a huge aquarium. I would have a reserve tank set up to declorinate water and just regularly water my lawn with the old. Would not work for salt very well.

 

[viejafish]

If you are planning on rays and discus there really is no way around doing frequent water changes no matter what bio media you use. It's the only way to reduce nitrates as far as I'm concerned, and why not do them when they make your fish look so much better and grow so much quicker?

For freshwater fish, there is no easier way to reduce nitrate than WC. You can attempt denitrification, but then your fish load is limiting to no more than 1 inch per 10 gal.

 

[markstrimaran]

All bio media's produce nitrate. Regardless of which one is the best. 1 inch of fish per 10 gallons. Is about my stocking. At a cubic inch. I am sure if 10 gallons of denitrator were used the stocking could be 10 inch per 10 gallon.
For ten gallons of water it would be easier to just. Water change.
So far I can consistently remove 99% nitrates from only one gallon per day, 100ppm to 1ppm or 10 ppm to .001? Ppm With a gallon of pumice substrate. Anaerobicly.
So a smaller total water volume seams practical at the moment.
30 gallon tank with a 30 day turn over. It would be similar as to doing daily 3% water changes.

 

[shookONES]

The best biomedia is live sand and live rock in the tank, period. In reef system, you use deep sand for aerobic nitrification near surface, and anaerobic denitrification deep down. In freshwater, you use shallow sand for aerobic nitrification only, and no need for denitrification as WC is the easiest way to remove nitrate. A 1" sand or gravel substrate, a few rock, and good oxygenated flow from HOBs or circulation pumps will do a better job than any man made bio matrix.

Maybe if you're keeping guppies and tetras...I challenge anyone to keep large, predatory monster fish in a similar setup.

 

[JasonsPlecosCichlids]

http://www.alfagrog.com/

 

[RDFISHGUY]

I like the K1 media. Every 50 liters of K1 will handle 250 grams of food per day. I don't think I've ever fed my fish 1/4 of a kilogram of food in a day.

 

[smitty03281964]

I love the Eheim bio media or the Aquaclear Biomax.