Taking ALL biofiltration out of my filter?

[dedragon]

I would remove the matrix as it breaks down over times and just turns to sand/dust. It just makes a mess so not worth it in the long run if you have enough live rock

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Alright so if I remove my matrix nothing will happen... So now I need to figure out how to keep my cheato in one spot of my filter I need to make sure it doesn't flow out of the filter into the tank etc.

I didn’t say nothing would happen. It might even be a benefit.

 

[cdemoss01]

I just added the matrix like a month ago. How should I attach my mesh to my filter to keep my cheato in

 

[Tamberav]

I don't have high hopes that the amount of cheato that fits in a tidal filter will have a significant impact on nutrients BUT pods may like it and pods are good to have in excess

You can try using the craft mesh at walmart, stuff is cheap. It is called plastic canvas, probably like $2-$3

 

[Tamberav]

plastic mesh

foam sticky thing to put on the side of the filter to zip tie too - they are called cable tie mounts...

Removable zip ties, so you can re-use them instead of adding a new one every time...

Put mesh here, vertical? so you don't block light from the top?

I have no idea, just what I would try. I made this up, it might work. Walmart should have all of it.

Bonus is you now have extra mesh and cable ties and can make acclimation boxes, mushroom boxes.. nem guards... small fish overflow guards... algae scrubbers...

Just be sure to clean it now and again, your GHA will gladly grow where the cheato does too...

 

[cdemoss01]

I don't have high hopes that the amount of cheato that fits in a tidal filter will have a significant impact on nutrients BUT pods may like it and pods are good to have in excess

You can try using the craft mesh at walmart, stuff is cheap. It is called plastic canvas, probably like $2-$3

Bruh I was told it would be enough literally about to give up on this tank at this point. Nitrates won't fix. Should I use reef flux on the algae

 

[cdemoss01]

I'm gonna figure something out with what I currently have and if that doesn't work I'll do that

plastic mesh

foam sticky thing to put on the side of the filter to zip tie too - they are called cable tie mounts...

Removable zip ties, so you can re-use them instead of adding a new one every time...

Put mesh here, vertical? so you don't block light from the top?

I have no idea, just what I would try. I made this up, it might work. Walmart should have all of it.

Bonus is you now have extra mesh and cable ties and can make acclimation boxes, mushroom boxes.. nem guards... small fish overflow guards... algae scrubbers...

Just be sure to clean it now and again, your GHA will gladly grow where the cheato does too

I'll do that if my idea doesn't work

 

[Tamberav]

Bruh I was told it would be enough literally about to give up on this tank at this point. Nitrates won't fix. Should I use reef flux on the algae

It is a tough hobby.

I would not reef flux, might get dino next and then wish you had GHA instead.

I am not sure if you caught what Randy said but basically lowering nutrients isn't a good way to control algae.

There are tanks with high nutrients and no algae issues.

It seems you have multiple issues going on, fish deaths but 80ppm nitrate isn't going to kill those fish.

It seems your family was watching your tank when you were away and it went to heck. Maybe they overfed? That's pretty common for tank sitters to do.

If it was disease, adding a white tail tang may be a bad move, those are expensive (and mean).

 

[BriDroid]

I pulled the Matrix out of my nano after it cycled. I do have some rock rubble in the first chamber under the skimmer. Filter floss and a bag of Purigen in the second chamber and heater and return pump in the third. I have 5lbs of sand in the display and probably 7-8 lbs of rock in the display. With carbon dosing vodka, my NO3 stays around 3-7 and my PO4 stays under 0.1.

You definitely don’t need bio media, and I really thought you did!

 

[GARRIGA]

The rock is the biofilter, no other biomedia required. This is called the berlin method. This article explains

The Berlin Method - complete guide - ReefPedia

Find out how to run a saltwater aquarium using the Berlin Method. Run your marine aquarium succesfully!

reefpedia.org

Back then we had much more porous rock and although I constantly see others claim rock acts as a bio-filter it's likely the affects of skimming and corals removing nutrients. Fact is most of the filtration with Berlin was to some extent the skimmer mechanically removing that which would otherwise breakdown. Fact is skimmers could have been used with other filtration systems such as canisters, wet dry and UG as it is today as old becomes new once again.

The breakthrough was the skimmer removing gross bulk. Funny how these methods were called nitrate factories yet if the rocks really replaced them then they'd be nitrate factories as well as they'd be processing that the skimmer couldn't remove. There was this assumption that deep in the rocks due to reduce flow denitrification was occurring but don't recall any tests proving this was significant enough to process those nitrates vs skimmate removal and water changes being the solution.

I'm going back old school before skimmers became a thing and putting algae to work which many probably think is new. Early to mid 80s was fashionable to place a tub over the wet dry full of caulerpa which would resolve nitrates. We just didn't know it required iron and such (at least I didn't) and perhaps why some I knew were successful yet I failed trying it. Lots we didn't know then pertaining to trace elements although we knew it existed and there was a need yet no clue how to monitor or replenish it beyond water changes. Since I didn't perform water changes then perhaps I wasn't replenishing my trace and the caulerpa suffered. These days ICP solves that.

 

[asiu0009083]

So I actually did something like this, where I bought a waterbox aio 35.2 and put only bags of dry rock/rubble and macro as filtration. I had to move unfortunately but the tank was very stable and I was able to keep quite a few "sensitive" species. The only issue was stray chaeto sometimes clogging the return pump.