Bio Media best choice for Sump advice?

[amazontank]

add air to create movement to the media via big air stones or off the return I believe buts it a bit harder.

Nice man!

my friend just buys those plastic storage tubs, puts a mesh on the top and bottom so water can flow freely then puts it in the sump with some air stones under it this lets the media dance, theres a few methods to do it its big in aquaponics.

I agree with your LFS, I wouldn't put anything in that overflow tower either. It'll just get covered with crap and then it'll be a nightmare to clean. Bio media should always go after the mech media.

From what I can tell MarinePure's claim to fame is the extremely high surface area and the ability to create denitrifying zones. They recommend that the blocks be used in passive filtration, which means basically just sitting there with minimal water movement over it, to achieve the denitrifying effect. Not sure how well that'll work in a high flow sump. So unless you can achieve that then really it comes down to if MarinePure has more surface area then other ceramic media to house more aerobic bacteria and allow you to have a higher fish load. I cant help you there as I dont know. I think if it was me I would just get a bunch of Matrix since its sooo much cheaper and has been proven.

Pond Matrix is alot more cost effective for a larger tank. That being said, I wouldn't add bio to the towers unless you're extremely overstocked and have no room in the sump. Anything in there is just going to collect debris and be a challenge to clean.

Thanks guys I been researching the bio media its more complicated than I thought.
Seems The Marinepure blocks along with pond matrix need to be under water in a passive way while the bio balls need to be exposed to air. I am still confused exactly how to set the sump up.
I am thinking on the bottom of the sump I can add some blocks and marinepure cubes and eheim substrat pro and pond matrix and above add bioballs to fill the sump up.

 

[Squirtle919]

Having all the media is useless without any mech, the pores will get clogged allowing bacteria to only colonize on the surface where there is not much area.

I would just do it like this....

Water in > Empty for settlement chamber OVER > filter floss on top then some poret foam different grade UNDER > Jap matt or another type of mech OVER > Super fine sponge like you wash a car with *** can clog so dont add this if your lazy xd *** UNDER > Matrix or Pond Matrix or marine pure OVER > pump, heaters, plants etc > back to tank

Lot of mech but I like to keep the water really spotless. I think your worrying to much about bio, they all work some may work better then others but matrix is ideally the best in terms of $$ and capacity sure its not self cleaning but if your sump is setup correctly crap should not be getting near the bio section. I throw 20L matrix (overkill) into each sump for larger tanks and never have an issue with parameters, if your only having one fish you dont need anywhere near that much lol.

 

[amazontank]

Having all the media is useless without any mech, the pores will get clogged allowing bacteria to only colonize on the surface where there is not much area.

I would just do it like this....

Water in > Empty for settlement chamber OVER > filter floss on top then some poret foam different grade UNDER > Jap matt or another type of mech OVER > Super fine sponge like you wash a car with *** can clog so dont add this if your lazy xd *** UNDER > Matrix or Pond Matrix or marine pure OVER > pump, heaters, plants etc > back to tank

Lot of mech but I like to keep the water really spotless. I think your worrying to much about bio, they all work some may work better then others but matrix is ideally the best in terms of $$ and capacity sure its not self cleaning but if your sump is setup correctly crap should not be getting near the bio section. I throw 20L matrix (overkill) into each sump for larger tanks and never have an issue with parameters, if your only having one fish you dont need anywhere near that much lol.

So bro you don't have any bio balls. I thought for the dry part those were the only things that worked?




Here is how I just set it up...


Eheim substrat pro on bottom of sump 4 gallons with 2 large bio blocks on stands I made from 2x2 plastic bio cubes. Then I have 200 Chem Stars over that. That media is all submerged under water. Then I filled it up with bio balls.

Then I added blue mats above the drip tray to trap all debris. I am thinking of getting something really fine to keep the media as clean as possible. I am gonna be replacing my 2 little giants with 2 low wattage top of the line pumps since I want to really move some water in the tank.

I got a couple gallons of marine pure coming soon. I was thinking put them on bottom also so they will be passive.

 

[Squirtle919]

I use bio balls to trap massive craps from my talpia and to stick on pump intakes to avoid sucking fish up but thats it, I think wet/drys are over rated, each to their own though.

Your sump setup sounds great, pictures?