They actually come out and tell you to replace ceramic biomedia every six months?!? What an absolute scam! Shameful...
It's an inert solid substrate whose only function is to provide a surface upon which bacteria can live and grow. It should last pretty much forever and never wear out or break down, but that wouldn't be good from a business standpoint, would it?
I personally think ceramic noodles or other fancy shapes are vastly overrated. Their surface area per unit volume, according to the many charts and comparisons online, is abysmally small compared to foam, actually near the bottom of the charts...but, of course, if you have enough room for enough ceramic media, you will be fine as most tanks need very little of any biomedia to support the required bacterial colony.
The biggest gripe I have with them is their weight; a bag of ceramic media weighs many times more than almost any other biomedium of equivalent surface area. I make a point of replacing all my biomedia every 50 years or so
, and remove them for rinsing more or less yearly, but lightweight plastic media beat ceramics all to hell in that comparison.
So, where's the benefit? Ceramics are expensive, heavy, provide relatively little surface area, are fragile and breakable if handled roughly, and worst of all...the makers want you to replace them every 6 months? That's absolutely the fly on the turdpile of ceramic media, IMHO.
It's an inert solid substrate whose only function is to provide a surface upon which bacteria can live and grow. It should last pretty much forever and never wear out or break down, but that wouldn't be good from a business standpoint, would it?
I personally think ceramic noodles or other fancy shapes are vastly overrated. Their surface area per unit volume, according to the many charts and comparisons online, is abysmally small compared to foam, actually near the bottom of the charts...but, of course, if you have enough room for enough ceramic media, you will be fine as most tanks need very little of any biomedia to support the required bacterial colony.
The biggest gripe I have with them is their weight; a bag of ceramic media weighs many times more than almost any other biomedium of equivalent surface area. I make a point of replacing all my biomedia every 50 years or so
, and remove them for rinsing more or less yearly, but lightweight plastic media beat ceramics all to hell in that comparison. So, where's the benefit? Ceramics are expensive, heavy, provide relatively little surface area, are fragile and breakable if handled roughly, and worst of all...the makers want you to replace them every 6 months? That's absolutely the fly on the turdpile of ceramic media, IMHO.
