Ceramic Biomedia Efficacy vs Live Rock

[Subsea]

This actually leads me to another question, and something immediately relevant to me...

I am in the process of breaking down a 65gal total system, moving it to a temporary 40gal breeder tank, then eventually moving it to a new 150gal total system... I wonder if keeping the brick in the breeder for 6ish weeks would allow it to build up enough nitrifying bacteria to help "skip" the cycle of the new tank, similar to putting established dry rock into a new system. With the intention of removing it after say another 6-8 weeks from the sump of the new tank. Theoretically with the amount of real estate they claim on these bricks, it would be an effective kickstart?

In your new system use a reverse flow undergravel filter. Nitrification bacteria will self regulate to nutrients.

In a mature tank, there are many more types of bacteria than Nitrification & denitrification. When you compare ceramic plates to live rock and only use nitrogen processing bacteria as the comparison, you neglect the most important part of diver collected live rock: micro fauna & fana that provide multiple nutrient pathways that feed corals & filter feeders.

There are many more nutrient pathways than bacteria.

 

[schooncw]

This actually leads me to another question, and something immediately relevant to me...

I am in the process of breaking down a 65gal total system, moving it to a temporary 40gal breeder tank, then eventually moving it to a new 150gal total system... I wonder if keeping the brick in the breeder for 6ish weeks would allow it to build up enough nitrifying bacteria to help "skip" the cycle of the new tank, similar to putting established dry rock into a new system. With the intention of removing it after say another 6-8 weeks from the sump of the new tank. Theoretically with the amount of real estate they claim on these bricks, it would be an effective kickstart?

Put some of your mature rock in there!

 

[mjszos]

In your new system use a reverse flow undergravel filter. Nitrification bacteria will self regulate to nutrients.

In a mature tank, there are many more types of bacteria than Nitrification & denitrification. When you compare ceramic plates to live rock and only use nitrogen processing bacteria as the comparison, you neglect the most important part of diver collected live rock: micro fauna & fana that provide multiple nutrient pathways that feed corals & filter feeders.

There are many more nutrient pathways than bacteria.

I don’t disagree with you, I however don’t see myself utilizing diver collected rock. Maybe TBS sometime in the future, but I don’t trust it being transported to me in the colder months.

Put some of your mature rock in there!

That is definitely the plan, I was just seeing people’s perspectives. I need to do some housekeeping on it over the coming weeks (snipping off all of these vermitid snails), but it’s going into the sump. I was just curious on the efficacy of the bricks and what a single brick would compare to in terms of rock. I anticipated someone would have run an experiment, but it turns out I was incorrect haha.