What Is Biological Filtration & Is It Important for a New Saltwater Aquarium? Ep: 21

Biological filtration can save your tank...but how do you get it right and how do you set it up? A little sand, a little live rock, some bacteria and you're ready to go. Matthew helps you figure out what it takes to make sure your biofiltration is ready for your fish and corals.
#BRStv #BRStvBeginnersGuides

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Missed Episode 19 & 20 on Beginner Filtration? Check them out here!

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*Legal Stuff*
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[Naltharian]

Carbon dosing works little bit different(more complicated) than you say mate, but w/e this is a beginner guide so all good :)

[aqhan]

I use Seachem Matrix exclusively both in my fresh- and saltwater tanks and I have never had any issues.

[aquapuncture]

Good to see you back with this series! 😎

[mak-ir]

I became enriched with knowledge...thank you Sir

[Malick_ibn_dinar]

I’ve been carbon dosing for a while . I checked my nitrate level and it was zero . I stopped dosing carbon for a few days so that my nitrate level could rise and that was a huge mistake ever since my tank crashed with Dino all over and it’s taking time to recover

[enzomontini]

Where is episode 1??? I want to start from the beginning

[amyellison]

I absolutely love this dude. I feel so much smarter after watching his videos lol.

[LadyCoyKoi]

I don't have marine tanks, but I do have a pond and your video actually helped me so much. Thank you for the ceramic ball tip. That truly helped manage my ponds' life and clearness. I have and use plastic balls and they help, but no where the level that ceramic balls do. Again, thank you so much. Ase.

[nc]

Ayeee! Love matthew! Glad you guys signed him

[ayushaahil]

Biofilter provide waste treatment by removing uneaten fish feed??

[TDREXrx]

Hey while I do love my ceramic media, plastic bio balls do have there place. Ponds I use them in my pond cause I find lava rock / other media tends to get clogged up with a lot of the smaller bits that fall in from tress and what not. not really an issue with most aquariums I imagine. lol

[oxylepy]

Plastic bio balls are the free with your filter biomedia. Everyone I know just uses ceramics

[dappledlight]

Great series! I have a couple quips on this one. As others in the comments have pointed out, ceramic biomedia gets clogged rapidly with biofilms, after which it provides less surface area than the plastic bioballs. Also the sponges discussed in the "mechanical filtration" video, when properly maintained, provide massive surface area for biofiltration (really more of a bioreaction, but I digress) and are likely doing more in those HOBs than the little ceramic balls.

[Gssirr]

My heater disintegrated the 2 marine pure cubes I had in the 10gAIO tank that I had setup, definitely will not be using those anymore, I think the more rock the better.

[MrMastavida]

So in Dr. Tims macna talk he specifically says not to go and buy those ceramic balls because water cant pass through them well enough and therefore recommends the plastic bio balls for nitrifying bacteria to settle on. Why do you say the opposite, Dr. Tim gives a thorough explanation but here it seems all you care about is surface area but not how nutrients can reach inside it.

[PrivateInfo-cq]

.... I had no idea this channel existed! Very good episode!

[MrDon]

I add some bottled bacteria if I’m washing the media’s and sponges. If not then no
Unless I’m adding 3 or so fish at the same time then I add about 30-50% of the needed total tank volume BB

[NinjaSushi]

Plastic bio balls have their place in the aquarium but I feel they're more suited towards overstocked and overfed fresh water tanks. People don't usually overstock or overfeed their salt water tanks unless they're new. Freshwater tanks on the other hand tend to carry some pretty big fish and people LOVE to overstock. Overstocking involves overfeeding which would mean ammonia spikes. This why I say plastic bio balls for freshwater tanks because plastic bio balls handle ammonia and nitrite very well whereas ceramic media handles nitrates very well. You have the aerobic and the anaerobic bacteria on ceramic media but then you have super aerobic bacteria which lives on things like the plastic bio balls for trickle-down filters.

tldr, imo - plastic bioballs for freshwater otherwise ceramic only in the sump. I will also state that using ceramic biomedia in a trickle down filter can sometimes get clogged. Talk about nitrate spikes...

[cdpo]

Another helpful episode on my journey, thanks! 🤜

[ronniekregar]

The best thing you can do is get a frag from your LFS that keeps a nice and mature reef tank and put that water in your tank. That will be 100x's better than anything you'll ever get in a bottle.