What do you think is the best biofilter to add to a tank?

Daniel@R2R · Nov 17, 2020

I'm thinking about things like MarinePure, siporax, or other biofilters that can increase your surface area exponentially. Which ones do you think are best? What's been your experience? Are they necessary at all?

newfly · Nov 17, 2020

I don’t know about the best, but I have been using seachem matrix for many years now. It last forever.

Vamsi · Nov 17, 2020

I personally using seachem Matrix. I wanted to go the siporax route, but found it to be pricey. But in the big equation, I do not think the price of the siporax is "expensive". I did hear good things about it. Marinepure heard it leaches aluminum.

Barnabie Mejia · Nov 17, 2020

I have been using marine pure spheres in my tank. I actually had the same 1 gallon box of spheres in my 29g for about 6 months and then transferred them to the 75g when I started it up.... I didn't need to cycle the tank at all with the use of seachem stability, I put water in it and 2 days later I added fish and coral to the tank. my parameters are stable and well within the "safe" range.

Pkunk35 · Nov 17, 2020

So I added marine pure blocks to my system on startup because i noticed that the porosity of the caribsea man made stuff was really low and that comprised 80% of my rock. I can’t say I noticed anything different than using regular live rock, but I think that’s prob good.
I believe brs did a porosity or water uptake test and marine blocks seemed to have more porosity than any other live rock per sq inch.

JasonK84 · Nov 17, 2020

Daniel@R2R said:
I'm thinking about things like MarinePure, siporax, or other biofilters that can increase your surface area exponentially. Which ones do you think are best? What's been your experience? Are they necessary at all?

I use no live rock in my 120 gallon fish only tank. Decor is Instant Reef coral inserts. My bio media in the sump include 4 liters of pond matrix, 4-1x8” Marinepur plates, and some marinepur spheres that I take from it to cycle other tanks. This tank has been up and running this way for 2 years as of October 5, 2020.

Cell · Nov 17, 2020

No clue. Just added some Marine Pure balls to my frag tank though. I figured it can't hurt...unless they leach al or something.

kkelly007 · Nov 17, 2020

I have two Marine Pure blocks (one 4x8x8 and one 2x8x8), plus a few bags of matrix rocks in my system (132g total volume). I think the Marine Pure blocks are incredible and that is what it appears the BRS guys use. The bags of matrix rocks are great if you need to quickly cycle a QT a more natural way (just take out and put in QT).

Auquanut · Nov 17, 2020

I mostly rely on the live rock for biofiltration. Not much of a minimalist guy. I do have 2 boxes of Marine Pure balls in the fuge. Mostly for pod condo's and to have ready media for anything I might need it for.