Filtration media and nitrate production

[Stupidsreef]

Sponges, filter pads and ect...ect...will cause Nitrate & Nitrite issues. Canister fitlers are the worst for doing this. Oxygen must be able to reach it for it to be broken down. Canister filters are sealed units so they take in oxygen but the water coming out is poorly oxygenated. Sponges & filter pads hold the waste, as the oxygen rich water runs through them it feeds the waste that's trap. There is no removel of the waste, there for it leaches the Nitrites and Nitrates back into the water.

My best friend placed a filter pad in his sump to stop tiny bubles from returning to his MD. I told him about this. He said everything tested out at zero. He started complaining that his corals didn't do as well as mine. I told him to remove the filter pad, and see if that helps. He unwilling did, his corals have since bloomed. He placed a new filter pad back in the sump 3 months later, with a month his corals started looking bad again, so he removed the pad. Again they bloomed. He complained that he would rinse it & he tested zero with different test kits. He recently had to frag out some of his coral do to there sizes, something he never had to do last year.

A good skimmer and the right amount of LR & LS is all the filteration need. Sometimes a GFO reactor is needed to help keep the phosphate undercontrol. No mechanical filteration is NEEDED but can sometime aid in large partical remove, all though it should be remove once the large particals are cleard. For example:

Sometimes when messing around in my sump I strirr up the junk on the bottom, I have a HOB filter hooked up and running during the time. I let it run for an hour or so after I'm done. Then I shut it off and remove it, and throw away the filter pad that was in it.