Best Filter Media For Nitrifying Bacteria Colony

[craig855s]

While asking at my LFS last week for mature media he was telling me how the shop doesnt use foam it uses a sandbed thing,and he said he uses ceramic rings top to bottom in his externals at home. He says its much better than foam,allows bigger colonies and the colonies grow faster.
Does anyone on here use only rings? would u recomend it? IF so i think ill donate my foam piece by piece replacing each bit with rings as i go

He also says he can cycle a tank from 5PPM to 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite in less than 10 days using only safestart and liquid ammonia. More on safestart in another topic

 

[bitteraspects]

ceramic rings are good for bio-media, but they provide almost no mechanical filtration at all, so unless you have a second filter that acts as mechanical filtration, you will need a regimen that accounts for both in the canister.

if you want max surface area for bacterial growth, go with hagen bio-max pellets. replacing your ceramic rings with these pellets increases your bio-filtration by 30%

if youre looking for something cheap, scrubbies provide a lot of surface area for a VERY low cost.