Any one ever used Matala matting?

I should have asked this before I guess, but I just got my order of this stuff and it seems pretty neat: ridgid mats of filter material that claims that you almost never have to clean them.

And when you do clean them, its suggested that you simply shake them for a couple seconds to dislodge crap with out ruining the BB coating, so they don't even need to be removed. So now my sump looks all professional, perfectly filled with this stuff versus the literal stacks of trash I had in there before. ( I accumulated all my plastic trash for media since I had such a problem finding enough pot scrubbies)

Anyways, is any one else using Matala matting for filter material? How is it?

I bought 5 of the black, blue and green. (But the green ended up being blue too. )

I didn't mean whack them by slamming them against the ground, but just a slight impact, like picking them up a couple inches and letting them drop back down into the sump. As far as flushing, I'm already running a 4000GPH pump, so I'm not sure how I can flush any more than what its doing under normal conditions. My plan is pretty much to do nothing other than sucking out sediment from the sump occasionally.

My sump base is a 90gal with 2 56gal rubbermaid tubs above it as a gravity filter. The 90 gal sump I have is about 80% filled with the matting cut to fit, stacked vertically with just a cleared section at both ends, one for the pump pick up and a spot for a place to put a charcoal filter if/when I ever need it on the other. A small kitchen trashcan worked perfect for this. I put most of the finest weave in the sump. The rest is stacked horizontally in the rubbermaid tubs. I used to have two stacks of 3 of these tubs, but ended up thinking it was overkill. That was before when I was just using a bunch of plastic trash. Now with this new matting, I think I have plenty of filterization with just two tubs over the sump. Plus, they fit perfectly, with just enough room next to the tubs on top of the 90gal to make room for the pump.

On the cost, I really don't think they're too bad. I figured that each of these matts are worth at least 200 pot scrubbies. I actually think they might be cheaper than pot scrubbies in the long run. Plus they are way more convienent.

The extra resistance of the media is an issue now tho. Now, I have to prime the system with water, where water is already trickling into the sump before I turn the pump on or else it will drain the sump before there is enough returning water. I not sure what I'm going to do with this other than eventually getting a bigger sump.

Nah, no prefilter. I do have the black matting on top though. The biggest fish in the tank is only 3 inches long though. There is minimal solid waste build up. The way I have my pump pickup in a rubbermaid trashcan in the end of the 90gallon aquarium sump leaves a 2 inch buffer on the bottom. Basically, I didn't cut slots into the trashcan until the 2inch mark from the bottom of the trashcan. This has the desired affect of not sucking down to the very bottom of the sump and allows better accumlation of solids without pumping them back into the tank. Its been working great. With around 70 small fish in the tank, it takes at least a month to see even .25 inch of matter build up in my sump, and that was before the new media.

But the tank is very new and is still being established. I bought all my fish as small (cheap) as possible. I have some loaches that will eventually get big. I'm hoping that all this matting alieviates the need for a prefilter even then. Isn't that what the black matting is for? This stuff looks like its almost impossible for it to turn anerobic. I figure it will all eventually get broken down and wind up as sediment in the sump.

I'll start a new DIY thread one day on this tank that will cover everything on the building of it, but I'll get some pictures of the sump. Its just that there is not much to see in the tank right now. Its pretty bare. My plan is to give it a year for any slow pin hole leaks to manifest before I start seriously decking it out. I already have around 2000lbs of gravel/sand mix plus at least another 1klbs of rock in there that I would have to remove if I did have to go in there to fix something. But it doesn't look like it, just barely enough to cover the bottom. The only point of access is 6ft off the ground: a 1 x 2ft hole that takes some acrobatics to get in and out of. This makes taking things in and out a hassle, hence leaving it bare for a while till I'm satisfied about the integrity of things. I uses a syphon-overflow so that I didn't have to mess with bulkheads. I have been gathering free landscaping rocks off freecycle sites and have my whole front porch filled already. I also found some cool wood too. In fact, the more I think about it, the less likely I'll be waiting a whole year but we'll see.