Substrate & Filtration

[N1z]

Mechanical filtration = Any man-made material used for housing bacterial colonies and filtering such as ceramics, filter pads, bioballs, etc.

Biological Filtration = Live Rock, Fluidised Beds, DSB's, etc.

Basically any mechanical filter will house bacteria and become a Nitrate factory producing more than it removes so should be removed. Powerheads should be free running, ie. no pads, flosses, etc. and external cannisters should be empty apart from live rock.
The best way to filter the tank is lots and lots of lovely live rock

so let me get this straight.... if i got rid of every thing in my canister and just put lr in it id have all my filtration.... and i mean all of it and wldnt have to do maintinance on it???
soz for the dumbness but i do know its a form of filtration just wnted to see if u cld just use that.

 

[andywg]

You will want Live Rock in the tank as well, the general rule of thumb is 1kg pre 2 gallons, though LR can vary massively in density so this isn't a perfect rule.

I do beg to differ with Aqua's description of mechanical vs biological filtrate:

Biological is anything that is there to provide a surface for bacteria to grow on, be it bio balls, sponges or ceramics,

Mechanical is anything designed to extract waste from the water by physical means (that is, by trapping it and keeping it in the media rather than having it in the water column).