Bio brick filter media

[Chockful O Phail]

Anyone had positive experience with bio home running with it as sole media?

Worked great for me, I couldn't foot the bill when I added/upgraded my tanks so now I have this and now I have it mixed with the seachem pond pumice stuff. I won't swear to any of the supposed nitrate reduction properties that are claimed but it has kept cycle through a couple long power outages. It's just overly expensive and the seachem stuff works just as well.

 

[tomojsg]

this kind of looks like biopure bricks i have...they are nice with lot of surface area
but its expensive. although i spent the money on it if i had to chose again i would
choose a different route. you can buy lava rock at your lhs for a lot cheaper & still
have similar results. just saying.

 

[Gaddisautoglass]

I agree, for as little as lava rock costs it has to hands down be the best. I've had it hold cycle in multiple day power outage situations.

 

[Jez1992]

I like the idea of something similar to this however would be concerned about after some time the bricks / rocks would clog and become saturated and it would be impossible to clean them?

 

[tomojsg]

I like the idea of something similar to this however would be concerned about after some time the bricks / rocks would clog and become saturated and it would be impossible to clean them?

all of mine sit in the middle chamber so doesnt clog
since i have a lot of japanese mats and reg filter mats
in different coarse it filters out any debris. only thing is
i have to change the fine coarse mats and polish out
every 1.5 week.

 

[thacarter546]

If you ever did need to clean them, which you shouldn't. It is a multiple day process. Soak in h2o2 overnight. Just store bought. You can add about a half gallon water per bottle of hydrogen peroxide to dilute it. Any more water and it takes forever. Rinse well and soak overnight in water. You can use it again now or put it up in storage.

I literally just finished cleaning 50 lbs of media for storage. Took forever.

 

[Gaddisautoglass]

With lava rock I keep it in filter bags and change a few out every 3 or 4 months, easy and I only pay about 15 -20 bucks a year on filter media for 6 tanks, even the poly fiber mats and black course mats get rinsed and reused for multiple years before replacement. Filtration doesn't have to be expensive or fancy, just lots of surface area and be cheap and easily obtainable.

 

[thacarter546]

I totally agree. I order cheap 17 x 17" sheets of foam for mech. I clean and reuse it for years. For bio I use whatever I can buy in bulk cheap which is usually rings. Azoo sintered glass rings are super cheap and high in surface area. The rest I filled in with 20 lbs of bulk ceramic ring. This never gets replaced and rarely gets rinsed.

The only thing that costs is uv bulbs. I spend 50 a year on bulbs for two uv sterilizers.