Too many types of bio media to choose one, Recommendations?

amazontank said:

placed strategically so they don't get clogged up.

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That is a very good point in determining what bio media you use. If you're going to run something with fine pores like matrix you will want very good mechanical filtration before it to prevent the pores from clogging up and the media needing frequent cleaning. IMO this is where K1 moving media has a huge advantage over static medias, as the "boiling" action prevents the fine waste particles from building up on it. I'm looking at converting my sump to K1 for this very reason.

rodger said:

Devils advocate here. Everyone has their personal preference for bio media and everyone says theirs is the best. No one has given a qualifier on why "their" product is the best. Why is yours the best?

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pond matrix info

poret foam

Thanks, Gill. I really enjoyed the Poret article. I had been wondering about low flow rates. For some reason, it just made a lot of sense. I think I will explore it further. I have gotten sponges from Swiss Tropicals and was planning on ordering some stuff there soon. I may rethink what I am doing and contact them first.

biohome ultimate it is. just provide a good mechanical filtration since it requires low flow to be very effective

Going with a moving bed sump this time around and was steered towards MB3 by Water Management Technologies. THEY CLAIM to out perform Kaldness. Either way have 800 scrubbies in my 340 and has always done well but they do collect an enormous amount
of old and dead Bio so want something that is more self cleaning.

http://www.w-m-t.com/Products/WaterTek_MB3_Moving_Bed_Media.php

Hello; Back some time ago I used a type of activated carbon (charcoal) in all of my filters. Back when it was popular we thought it helped trap some chemicals. I now understand that particular function is short lived as the adsorption process gets saturated pretty quickly.

I also had thought that the carbon could be re-activated by baking it in an oven for a while. The current information is that a normal home oven does not get hot enough to do this. However baking it in a home oven would cook off much of the stuff trapped in the pores.

For a long while the filters I used were easy to layer with filter media. I would put a layer of the carbon at the botton topped with layers of some sort of filter floss. The floss would mechanically trap a lot of the detritus before it got to the carbon. I understand now that the real benefit of the carbon layer over weeks/months was the porous nature as a good site for beneficial bacteria(bb) to grow. Add to this that it was fairly inexpensive and with a good rinsing and a bake in an oven was back into service.

I guess the carbon got pigeon holed as to it's short term function of chemical adsorption and not considered for it's use as bio media.

Another thing I used in some large filters was a layer of glass marbles. The marbles were not porous but they arranged themselves so that there was a fairly good flow thru the filter. They were easy to clean, inert and at the time fairly cheap as well.

My opinion for bio media.
Number 1 Seachem Matrix
Number 2 Eheim substrat Pro

different bio media works differently in different types of filtration. for canisters id go with ceramic materials or if ur going to setup a moving bed filtration/sump k1/2 would work best or a reg sump for sump full of bioballs fully submerged in water and etc etc

I had trouble deciding on one and I use a mix of matrix, substrat pro, Api bio stars, and ceramic media..

I setup my 2262s with mostly EhfiMech and Dupla Minikaskade bio balls on the top. I purchased the Dupla bio balls because I thought they were one of the best options at the time. I had to order them from overseas because they are unavailable in the USA.