Wow, thank you for the reply and input. Beautiful tank by the way. 34liters! Wow! I will have 28 in my system when this experiment is done.
Do you dose a carbon source?
Did you seed the rocks with bacteria?
How long was it until you noticed results?
Some people claim the detritus buildup is the downfall of these other medias vs marinepure. I run filter socks and have not seen a detritus buildup. I think if I ever have an issue I will just suck it out using a gravel vacuum when I clean my sump or just remove the media and clean the sump. I have also read a lot of success with people dosing Bio-Mate to remove excess detritus.
What's your opinion on this experiment? What would you do differently?
Using Matrix is still new to me so I am learning as I go, but as I mentioned I'm very happy with it.
I do not dose any carbon.
The rock used in both my last tank and my current tank has been with me for about 9 years so I did not need to seed it.
I think I first started to notice results about 2-3 months after beginning to use Matrix. I do believe running filter socks is good to keep the detritus out of it . A low flow reactor, in my opinion, is the ideal application for Matrix but media bags or baskets work very well also. I am using both. If I could do anything different, I'd probably just have all my matrix in one huge reactor but I kind of just pieced everything together. I'll get a pic up of my setup when I get home. I do feed my tank very heavy and I rely on both my oversized skimmer and matrix to keep everything in check.