bio in a canister filter

[aquaman5000]

ok iv been thinking bout puting some type of bio balls or rocks or pot scrubers or somthing of that nature in one of the treys in my cascade 1000 canister will i bennifit from doing soo and t thought bout loading up one side of my penguin 350 with some plants to act as a refriguim ? any pros and cons

 

[davidtcb1]

Yes, if you don't have some type of bio media in your canister, you should. I have found that the small ceramic rings work best for me in my canisters. You can get a lot of them in there and they're easy to work with. You can put them in a filter bag for easy removal during maintenance.

 

[Bderick67]

Use eheims ehfisubstrat or hagens biomax for the best biomedia in your canister. You would need light, kinda small not many plants gonna grow there. Refugiums have little if any effect on freshwater aquariums

 

[aquaman5000]

what dose a refugium do anyways ?? i saw one at the lfs made out of a old ac 110

 

[Bderick67]

what dose a refugium do anyways ?? i saw one at the lfs made out of a old ac 110

reduce nitrates, grow algae that would otherwise be eaten in tank. These are a couple of uses I sure there are some salt guys that will chime in.

 

[aquaman5000]

im going to try one

 

[iloveoscars702]

ive been hearing people using pot scrubbies.. what are they and what do they do for filtration?

 

[Toby_H]

Back in the day before "bio media" ever existed, once a tank was established high nitrates was the only concern...

I don't have any specialize bio media in any of my tanks... yet bacteria seems to find plenty of surfaces to grow on...

Now I have become convinced that Fluidized Beds or wet/dry (but not just a sump) will allow the bacteria to multiply faster on the rare occasions it needs to, such as when the stock list increases dramatically.

But I do not see any benefit to having bio media with vast surface area completely submerged in water. Since there is no increased oxygen to fully submerged media... and there is already ample surface area within the system already...

What's the benefit?

 

[davidtcb1]

ive been hearing people using pot scrubbies.. what are they and what do they do for filtration?

That's mainly in sumps since there's lots of room for a bunch of them as opposed to in a canister. They basically act like bio balls for bio filtration. They have a lot of surface area for bacteria to grow on and are cheap!

 

[Toby_H]

They (scrubbies) basically act like bio balls for bio filtration. They have a lot of surface area for bacteria to grow on and are cheap!

They also make a great final stage for mechanical filtration... If you stack them right... overlapped like bricks on a brick wall prevent a lot of loss due to bypass...