is it ok to add bio rings in the sump?

[somebody]

i no money to buy biohome. haha. just use cheap crushed corals from reborn.

$4 for 10kg i think. haha. =)

[Qxnviolet]

Hrmz, does petmart carry biohome?

[jervismun]

Hrmz, does petmart carry biohome?

Seen them at Aqua Mart (Jalan Besar)... I am considering adding some AM Cerapore into my compartments when I get my paycheck

[Qxnviolet]

Hrmz, the Cerapore...is it a better product as compared to biohome?

[jervismun]

Hrmz, the Cerapore...is it a better product as compared to biohome?

I believe so... if comparing with white Biohome... Red one I'm not sure. The product promise of Cerapore does sounds pretty convincing... around $50+ a box, so might get 1 box to try out first.

[Qxnviolet]

Hrmz, when are you getting your paycheque? I might be interested in getting either the biohome or the cerapore....got chance we go down together and take a look la...

[jervismun]

Hrmz, when are you getting your paycheque? I might be interested in getting either the biohome or the cerapore....got chance we go down together and take a look la...

That's a good idea... most probably will go down next Tuesday (after work)... wanna join? You can of course read about the product:

http://www.aqua-medic.de/seawater/en/17/cerapore/

[Qxnviolet]

That's a good idea... most probably will go down next Tuesday (after work)... wanna join? You can of course read about the product:

http://www.aqua-medic.de/seawater/en/17/cerapore/

Sure....sms me, i'll be on leave and my wife will be at school. So...... Okok, Sorry everyone.

[jervismun]

K

[cyberpig]

haha... i heard of that before!

i think we are being the true singaporeans la. too kiasu...

oh, i actually knows of a reefer who hasnt changed his waters for 13 months, the last time i talked to him. if he still hasnt changed waters yet, it will be coming close to 15 months.. and everything in his tank is doing brilliantly!

oh oh oh! and my bubbles do not have its tentacles out anymore! wonder if it has somthing to do with the water changes. gonna try not changing again, see if the tentacles will come out...

Just to check. Is there really a need to do regular water change? According to a LFS I went previously, we top up the tank with fresh water everyday to offset evaporation so there is no need to do water change at all. The owner says he never change water in all of his tanks..

[colinsoon]

[PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG]

the thing bout water change is to:

1. reduce the ANN build up in the tank:

2. replenish trace elements and minerals lost to the corals/fishes/skimming.

ok, what i feel is that, a weekly 10% water change does contribute to keeping nitrates down, but the thing is, nitrates are spread evenly throughout the water, and a 10% water change will only remove the proportionate amount of nitrates. so if your nitrates were at 100, probably drop it to 90, max 70, which will probably shoot up after a week or so. i dun dispute that water change will help, but i just feel that, water change to do juz reduce nitrates, is more like an act, den having any practical use. My tank suffered an 80% swimming LS wipeout from a semi crash 2 months over ago, and i did not even change water to reduce the nitrites nitrates level. i had faith in my water parameters, which did not fail me. NO2 from 50ppm dropped to less then 15ppm in 2 days, NH3 i din test, but from the way my fishes died, i can see that is pretty high. my water was back to normal like 4-5 days after the crash. (packet salt expensive la)

i mean honestly, do the maths. how much ANN can you remove from a 10% water change? even up to 30%. any more than that you risk the stability of the tank, cos the bacterial density in the tank will confirm fall like mad, and ANN reduction will even take a longer time.

it all boils down to how stable your tank is, not wat will happen when you rock the tank, but how your tank reacts to situation like that. leave the water to its own doing once you have enuff LR and biomedia inside for the cultivation of bacteria. the water will auto correct itself, so nothing much to worry. anyway i also cant really afford a weekly water change. students aint rich, on the contrary to wat a lot of working people in SRC think now...

if you do not change water, at least doze additives to replenish wat is lost... wat to doze? i cant tell you for sure. cos i juz figured out the ANN/bacteria logic recently, trying to figure out wat to doze would be better. my observation though: reef trace quite important, cos i can see a distinctive colour change for the better after i started dozing trace. calcium is a must, iodide also, if you got inverts, cos they need that to molt. when i was still dozing it, they molted like once in 2 weeks. now they hardly molted. eating a lot, but not molted yet. i stopped dozing iodide 2 months ago... the nice part of reefing when you are a student. you are controlled by wat you can afford to buy, and you learn thru trial and error. start small. learn small. i learnt quite a bit, from my tank and of course all the knowledge shared by all the bros here.

i would say, if you wanna recreate a miniature environment, leave it to the natural process. other den a skimmer, any other thing is a luxury i feel, not a necessity. i can say that my water is not in a pristine condition, but its definitely good enuff for corals to grow, and recover... btw, i could only afford NO2 test kit. so i only tested NO2.

my lousy 1/2 cent of thought.

[jervismun]

Have to agree with u about A N N being evenly distributed, what difference is 10% gonna make then to replenish depleted nutrients and blah... I've not change my water for a week now and trying to stretch it to 2 weeks. Later, when the tank is more stable I will only do 10% to 15% once a month.

Also depending on the condition of ur LS. If you spotted dying/decaying/melting LS, remove them immediately. If you can't find some missing LS, then presume they're dead and start planning for a more than usual water change to minimize the impact.

Equipments help a lot, protein skimmer is the best equipment ur money can buy. I recently invested in a Denitrator to take care of Nitrates, Phosphatfiler to take care of Phosphate. Ammonia and Nitrites will be taken care of by the LR, LS, bioballs. Chaetomorpha (macroalgae) running 24 hours can also help bring down excess nutrients.

Some will not go to that extent... but I think my list is quite essentially minimal.

Once my tank stabilize and all my equipments running smoothly, I really don't see the reason to do weekly water change... not that I am lazy... but everytime after water change, my Internal Affairs Minister will make me mop the floor

[Acanthurus sohal]

Personally, I removed my bio balls, had them on overflow , trickle down to sump.

I i used filter wool instead to collect weekly the debris, and throw that layer away. I used coral chips in my sump, and have a separate tank (refugium) : chaeto,grapes algae, ulva algae, and live rocks ........

I read in a few websites that bio-balls are bad ( unless u have the time to maintain/wash them!) which I dont want to....the result speaks for itself! At least for me

[sharkfin]

hi guys, tks 4 sharing all those info so can i say both bio home n cerapore is beta than bio ball? i got lotsa it inside if tat is reali e case in wil mix both bio homen cerapore inside my sump

pls advise

[colinsoon]

its fine, as long as you can ensure as minimal detritus escapes your filter wool as possible, so they wun collect on and inside the bioballs....

[jervismun]

But filling up ur sump with Biohome and Cerapore can be very costly

[Ah-lim]

Juz curious, if your tank had enough live rock, and a good skimmer, why is there a need for them[bio home, bio ball etc]? Wouldn't the live rock itself is sufficent for the ANN cycle?

Eg. 30kg live rock in a 3 ft tank.

Advise please. Thanks.

[LinkinPark]

Juz curious, if your tank had enough live rock, and a good skimmer, why is there a need for them[bio home, bio ball etc]?  Wouldn't the live rock itself is sufficent for the ANN cycle?

Once the tank is fully cycled, the bacteria in the LR is sufficient for ANN

I believe once your tank is fully cycled and has thriving community of fishes and corals, there is no need for these media 

The only disadvantage is when detritus accumulate over time, the place will become a nitrate factory 

[Reefaholic]

I have to agreed with LinkinPark.

IMO, you do not need those bio balls, biohome or Cerapore. Over time it collects detritus and become a nitrate factory. If you wash them, then it again contradict the purpose as those bact will be disturbed. Over the time, your water becomes stable and eventually run its own course, of course with regular maintenance like water change, etc.

[jun]

Hrmz, what is the advantage of mixing both of them?

what is the advantage of mixing both red and white biohome?