Live Rock in Filters

[bayoupr]

Would using live rock in a cannister or large media reactor help in lowering nitrates? Wouldn't this have the same effect as pellets in devoloping the bacteria needed to break it down? Or would this be a waste of time?

[HighlandReefer]

The added live rock will provide nice niches for bacteria to grow and produce an aerobic environment which is conducive to nitrate brake down by bacteria.

Live rock does not add carbon sources like the biopellets or liquid carbon sources (vodka or vinegar). The carbon seems to be in short supply in reef aquarium & is a limiting factor for increased bacterial growth.

The added live rock by itself, may not do much, unless your aquarium does not have enough live rock to utilize the available carbon source existing now.

I would expect that if you were dosing a liquid carbon source & added additional live rock, this would be beneficial for nitrate reduction.

It can be similar to the options of using a deep sand bed or a shallow sand bed. Although the deep sand bed provides much more surface area for bacteria to grow & brake nitrate down, in the studies I have seen there seems to be little difference in nitrate brake down between deep sand beds and shallow sand beds. Both types of sand beds are poor nitrate reducers. Now if you add carbon sources to the water column things can change (provided the carbon sources reach the anaerobic areas) to accelerate bacterial populations in anaerobic areas within the live rock and deep sand beds. ;)

[bertoni]

For such a small volume, one of the artificial media, like SeaChem Matrix (not the carbon) might be more effective. I suspect the power filter won't do all that much with regular live rock.