RSM - Remove or replace ceramic bio material?

[ElGuappo]

i may have 2 pounds of rubble in there. i have about 40 pounds in the display. the bubbles can be from air trapped in the sponge. i know its hard but you need to try and squeeze the air out of the sponge while its underwater. whould only take a day or so for the air to work its way out via watermovement. i just went to my LFS and asked if i could take some rubble. just grabbed some stuff out of the bottom of the LR bin.

[RSM2008]

Sooo much cleaner!
I removed the ceramic bio filter bag and the Chemi Pure (it was ready for replacement anyway). Water flow is great and there is way less debris acumulation in the chamber.
Now I am going to fashion an egg crate rack under the return pumps to hold my ChemiPure above the bottom.
So I have: fine filter (rinsed almost daily), 1/2 blk sponge, skimmer (mine removes tons of guck) and finally carbon on the way back to the tank.
I'll keep an eye on nitrates to make sure my LR is doing what the ceramic was. Have been 0 0 0 for ages.

[ElGuappo]

myself and others nolonger run media under the powerheads, as its a pain to remove them. just run media atop the half black sponge.

[MCC]

Go to the internet and research the RSM mods....

I have seen people turned the back of their RSM into refugiums and protein skimmers... etc..

Its better to use natural biological filtration then any of the synthetic stuff on the market today...