Best bio media? (bio balls-bio max)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
rkc772;1999097; said:
i would say ehfisubstrat pro and then biomax ceramic rings.

mainly depends on your budget as well... eheim's ehfisubstrat has a higher price but if you really want more bioload you will go with eheim's product. quality vs. quantity :D IMO
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:iagree:
 
I will know more this weekend about what this tank allready has for filtration. I am told that is had a drip trickle but it's lold if I could take that out of the filters and use bio balls for it then go with another submerged media I think ill be better off. I want to be able to have ANY bio load I want.
 
For w/d applications pot scrubbies are hard to beat. For just about anything else, sintered glass is slightly ahead of ceramics when it comes to bio-filtration. Brand names mean absolutely nothing and you are best just going for the cheapest sintered glass biomedia you can find, unless ceramic is quite a bit cheaper.

People claim different brand names of the products work better, but I'd like them to prove that first. Sintered glass is sintered glass. The only differences are they way the companies calculate the surface area (to make their products seem superior) and the shape they make them in, which i will admit some shapes are better in different applications, but in reality you aren't going to see any difference between 2 different brands of sintered glass or ceramic rings. In fact you probably won't see any difference between sintered glass and ceramics, these bio-medias have enough surface area that most of the time there is just a lot of extra that isn't even colonized and thats the way it should be, always go for extra.
 
WyldFya;1999120; said:
Personally I use quality in quantity. :D My 150 has nearly 20L of ehfisubstrat pro on it.
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eheim sunstrate pro is really good but what did 20L cost???


http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/474/Bio-Glass-Filter-Media

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/473/Siporax

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/3089/Matala-Filtration-Media

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/3308/Sand-Filters-by-Jacuzzi

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2639/Bio-Barrels

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2628/Biofilm-Carrier-Elements


lots of options out there... i personally will be using the first 3 in my new sump... along with matrix, substrate pro and bio max... some good pressurized sand filters might be a good option, you can find them on ebay for cheap... nylon scrubbies are great in wet dry set ups.... lots of surface area for cheap...
 
Keep in mind that more surface area isn't always relevant. Your bacteria colony will exist in direct correlation to your waste load. You cannot have more bacteria that can be fed by your waste load.

So, massive amounts of bio-media with massive amounts of surface area just end up being thinly colonized. Most people overkill this thing to death.

As for me, I use bio-balls in my wet/dry filters and Eheim Sub-Pro in canisters. The Sub-Pro is consistently sized and much easier to rinse (without losing it down the drain!) than Matrix and a few others.
 
my opinion comes from experience and comments from fellow hobbyist. but then again i can be wrong...;)

This is not an argument but stating facts. You will see people with massive tanks at 400 to 1000 gal tanks using bioballs but at the bottom you will see nets of ceramic rings. bioballs can handle up to some extent but not at a massive load-IMO:)

now the only question is what is a massive load.... and feeding habits as well as water changes.

all comes into play when you decide to do your filtration. good luck!:)
 
rkc772;2000353; said:
my opinion comes from experience and comments from fellow hobbyist. but then again i can be wrong...;)

This is not an argument but stating facts. You will see people with massive tanks at 400 to 1000 gal tanks using bioballs but at the bottom you will see nets of ceramic rings. bioballs can handle up to some extent but not at a massive load-IMO:)

now the only question is what is a massive load.... and feeding habits as well as water changes.

all comes into play when you decide to do your filtration. good luck!:)
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I agree with redundancy. In my opinion a w/d is good at removing a lot of ammonia and nitrite, but there isn't a whole lot of contact time, and its always nice to have more surface area then needed, that way if you would overfeed, a fish would die, you get more fish, ect. ect. you have the surface area to be colonized with more bacteria.
 
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