Do I need biological media in my canister?

I have a Fluval 305 canister filter and I was wondering what's the best media or combination of media to have in it. I read somewhere (which I can't find the source anymore) that I should not use the ceramic rings that came with it because it does more harm than good. I'll admit I don't honestly don't know what that means because it's kind of vague.

Right now I just have the rings and carbon that came with it, but it's about time to replace the carbon. I was thinking about Chemi-Pure to replace the carbon, should I keep the bio rings?

My setup is:
29 gal
Fluval 305
AquaC Remora
20lbs base rock
10lbs live rock

My livestock consist of 1 clownfish, 1 green chromis, 3 peppermint shrimps and 8 or 9 turbo snails.

btw - I'm not sure if I can consider the base rock to be live rock by now. It's starting turn darker and some of it's developing spots of pink coralline. My tank is 9 almost 10 weeks old.

 

I am thinking 8-9 turbo snails is way to much for your tank...those are fairly big snails...I would have gone wiht maybe 2-3 of those. They have not starved so I am probably wrong!

I love chemipure elite...I would add that or purigen...I have used both. I would also add some Pura phoslock or other phosphate reducer

I had that canister filter on one of my tanks and the ceramic rings did get really really nasty....you could try to put some LR rubble in there maybe? I ran mine wiht the rings so not sure how effective the LR would be in those baskets. But if you can find some little LR rubble pieces...maybe find a small pourous rock and smack it a few times with a hammer and place it in a bag in one of the compartments that would be better then the rings..IMO

 

your liverock alreaddy is your bio-filter.if you use rings or bio balls you have to clean part of them every month or 2.i don't use them so someone else i'm sure can give more accurate advice.

 

You can keep the rings if you want but use the Chemi-pure elite, it's better.

 

I don't think you are wrong about the snails because I started out with 12 turbo's and they slowly died off to whats left now. I'm sure they starved to death :-[.

I looked at the reef packaged on liveaquaria.com and that's what they recommended for a tank my size. It seemed like overkill, but everything about my tank is overkill... ie. 40lbs of live sand, Fluval 305 model filter and the remora skimmer.

 

It's not a bad idea! BUT remember you need to provide good/regular maintenance of your media, otherwise they will turn into nitrate/phosphate production facility!

 

Join the club...am the queen of overkill ;D. The sand is fine, and it is always better to upgrade on the equipment then downgrade so those are good choices...esp the skimmer..the most important purchase IMHO in this hobby (at least one of them).

And who knows the snails might have just died, they tend to do that sometimes....