Filtration & Life Support Systems (LSS): Clean Your Bloody Filters!
Share
Let’s get one thing straight: You don’t want your fish and corals swimming in filth. You wouldn’t bathe in your own swamp water, so why should your aquatic system?
And it’s not just about keeping things looking pretty—your bacterial buddies don’t like living in a mess either. You’ve gotta respect your bacterial buddies! These microscopic workhorses are what keep your system running, breaking down waste and processing harmful compounds. But if you let detritus build up and suffocate them, they’re gonna struggle—and so will your entire system.
This applies whether you’re running culture tanks, display aquariums, aquaculture systems, or any Life Support System (LSS). Your filtration system—whether it’s a **sump, canister filter, trickle tower, or fluidized bed reactor—is only as good as the maintenance you put into it.
Filtration is a Team Effort: If One Part Falls Over, the Whole System Struggles
Your filtration system is like a pit crew at a racetrack—if just one mechanic slacks off, the whole car is in trouble.
✔ Mechanical filtration should remove solid waste before it can settle and rot.
✔ Biological filtration should be clean and unclogged so bacteria can do their job.
✔ Chemical filtration should pick up the leftovers without being overwhelmed.
When one part of your filtration fails, the rest of the system has to work harder to compensate. That means excess nutrients, reduced water quality, and eventually, an ecosystem that’s gasping under its own waste.
Mechanical Filtration: The First Line of Defense Against Swimming in Filth
200 Microns is the Absolute Maximum – 50 Microns is the Industry Standard for UV Pre-Filtration
For mechanical filtration to be effective, it needs to catch waste BEFORE it has a chance to settle.
✔ 200 microns is the absolute maximum for coarse solids removal in most cases.
✔ 100 microns or lower is preferable for finer particles.
✔ 50 microns is the industry standard for UV sterilizers to ensure proper biosecurity control.
By filtering at these levels, you:
✅ Stop fish waste, uneaten food, and detritus from breaking down into a nutrient soup.
✅ Make life easier for your biological filtration by reducing the workload.
✅ Improve water clarity and overall system health.
If your mechanical filtration is clogged, missing, or ignored, guess where all that waste ends up? Yep—settling into your biomedia, your refugium, or worse, right back into your culture tank or display aquarium.
The MBBR: The Perfect Example of Why Clean Media Works Better
Enter the MBBR (Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor)—a gold standard in aquaculture for one simple reason: it stays clean.
🔹 How It Works:
✔ A reactor is filled with high-surface-area floating media (like K1 or K3 bio-media).
✔ Water is constantly circulated, keeping the media moving.
✔ As biofilms grow, older biofilms slough off naturally, allowing younger, more efficient bacteria to colonize.
✔ This ensures peak ammonia and nitrite removal, even under heavy bio-loads.
What This Means for Your Filtration System
MBBRs prove a simple point:
➡️ Clean, moving bio-media works far better than dirty, clogged bio-media.
❌ A clogged bio-media surface is a useless bio-media surface.
❌ Bacteria cannot function efficiently in areas blocked by detritus.
✅ MBBRs show us that clean, self-renewing surfaces outperform dirty, stagnant ones every time.
So if an MBBR stays clean to maintain peak performance, then why wouldn’t you clean your sump, your canister filter, or your static bio-media to achieve the same result?
If your Marine Pure media from Cermedia (Distributed in Australia by AquaPremium), ceramic rings, or bio-balls are turning into a detritus trap, you are actively sabotaging your system.
Biomedia in Aquatic Systems: If It’s Dirty, It’s Not Working
💡 Cleaning your biomedia is NOT about sterilizing it.
It’s about keeping it functional by removing the crap that clogs it up.
✔ Rinse biomedia in system water to avoid killing beneficial bacteria.
✔ Keep bio-media chambers free of detritus so bacteria can get proper oxygen exchange.
✔ If it’s sitting in waste, it’s doing more harm than good.
If your bio-media looks like a swamp filled with mulm, congratulations! You’ve created the perfect environment for nutrient leaching, oxygen depletion, and bacteria suffocation.
The Triton Method & Refugium Maintenance: More Proof That Clean = Better
The Triton Method, developed by Ehsan Dashti of Triton Applied Reef Bioscience, relies on refugiums for nutrient export. However, even Triton acknowledges that maintenance is key.
❌ If your refugium is a detritus swamp, it’s a nutrient factory, not a nutrient export system.
✔ Keep it clean and free of detritus to ensure macroalgae can actually remove nutrients instead of releasing them back into the system.
Filtration System Breakdown: Keeping Everything Working Together
A well-maintained filtration system is like a high-performance race car—every part must work together.
1. Mechanical Filtration – The First Line of Defense
✔ 200 microns max for coarse solids removal (preferably 50-100 microns).
✔ Filter socks, rollers, or fleece mats should be changed frequently.
✔ Protein skimmers must be cleaned regularly—a dirty skimmer neck reduces efficiency by up to 70%.
2. Biological Filtration – The Engine of Your System
✔ Marine Pure media from Cermedia provides high surface area for bacteria.
✔ Keep biological media detritus-free to prevent clogging.
✔ MBBRs show us that self-cleaning media works better than clogged, stagnant media.
3. Chemical Filtration – The Final Polish
✔ Carbon, GFO, and other adsorption media must be changed regularly before saturation.
✔ Lanthanum chloride and phosphate binders must be dosed carefully to prevent precipitation.
4. Flow & Waste Management
✔ Ensure high sump flow to prevent waste accumulation.
✔ Use circulation pumps in sumps to keep detritus suspended.
✔ Siphon waste from sump chambers regularly—don’t let it sit.
Final Takeaways: Keep Your Life Support System (LSS) in Peak Condition
🔹 200 microns is the max—50 microns is the industry standard for UV sterilization pre-filtration.
🔹 Your LSS is interconnected—if one part fails, the whole system struggles.
🔹 Biofilms & waste pockets can release toxic hydrogen sulfide if left undisturbed.
🔹 Mechanical filtration, biological filtration, and chemical filtration must be maintained regularly.
🔹 If you run a refugium (Triton Method or otherwise), you MUST keep it clean.
You want the waste to get to the filter, to get it out of your system. The rest you manually remove with substrate siphons and water changes.
You want the filter to take out that crap that has been circulated to the filter so your tank stays clean.
Then WHY, in the name of sweet blue Jesus, would you NOT ensure that there is NO waste buildup in the filtration, and that EVERYTHING in the filter is operating at peak performance?
Clean your bloody filters!
Or I’ll find you, and I’ll bring the belt. 🎤