Aerobic and Anaerobic bacteria remove noxious ammonia and nitrogenous waste from aquarium systems. Both require large surface areas on which to grow. MicroBacter Lattice provides a huge surface area that is up to 200 times larger than many biological filtration mediums, providing for a much more efficient filtration system in a much smaller space. While Micro Bacter Lattice provides the area, it must be properly seeded with bacteria to allow it to populate properly. This can be done naturally by just placing the material in your filtration system, but ideal results will be achieved much more rapidly and a more diverse population of bacteria will be established by the use of MicroBacter Start XLM, MicroBacter Start XLF, MicroBacter7, FlorinBacter7 or MicroBacter Clean.