Finally got a drip tray for the sump on my 240. Its full of bioballs i was wondering if my idea of filling the first part of the sump with rena filstars and ehiem substrate and biomax would increase the bio colony by 100 times. I have added about 200 black rena filstars ontop along with lots of substrate and about 10 ehiem fiberglass sponges, is that not the ultimate filter or am i missing something with the bioballs bacteria capacity and the chance the stars and substrate might get clogged very fast. Water seems to be dripping evenly over everything and i would think the black stars and substrate and sponges can hold a huge amount of bacteria compared to the bioballs especially if it was exposed to air!!!!!
Bio media in a sump
- Thread starter HugeGhost
- Start date
plastic pot scrubbies are a great low cost media with lots of surface area. Why not fill your sump with those?
could you use these shower scrubby things as bio material????
(sorry to sort off hijack your thread
)
(sorry to sort off hijack your thread
)
you can but we have a member on here who has to do like constant water changes because he is using them in his sump.. so i would say no dont use them
sxcsamman;538174; said:could you use these shower scrubby things as bio material????
(sorry to sort off hijack your thread
You could, like milkman407 said, but why? They crush easily, lowering the overall surface area available to water/aeration. Scrubbies http://www.wernersponds.com/scrubbies.jpg don't and won't.
If you had to use something like what you suggested, go to a cloth store and purchase the material in bulk and stuff it in a sump. Way cheaper. You can also use felt for a filter material.
Dr Joe
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HugeGhost;537727; said:
Yea, getting the drip plate level can be a pain.
Sounds like you've got the perverbial 'ton' of filter media in there, I think if you add purigen you'll have all the top names
.I think potts050's statement was that you may have done it cheaper
.Keep a watch on your water chemistry and tell us how its working and how long it takes to cycle (it is in a new tank isn't it?)
Dr Joe
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I thing the plastic pot scrubbers are going to give you more surface area to air than the biochem stars. I would use those stars in an immersed application, like at the bottom submerged part of your sump and use scrubbers or bio balls for your trickle, as they have more open space for oxygen to come in contact with the bacteria.
HugeGhost;537727; said:
If the biofilter is already doing a superior job running the tank then your good, bacteria only multiply till they reach a population that can keep up with the waste production from the fish.
mgiht wanna add more mechanical media though
sxcsamman;538174; said:could you use these shower scrubby things as bio material????
(sorry to sort off hijack your thread
A little high school math review:
The ratio of surface area to volume increases as the size of the object decreases.
Eg#1. A cube with a volume of 1 inches cubed has a surface area of 6 square inches.
The ratio of surface area to volume is 6:1 = 6
Eg#2. A cube with a volme of 8 inches cubed has a surface area of 2*2*6= 24 square inches. The ratio of surface area to volume is 24:8=3
The same rule applies to surface areas of fibres and strings. As a rule of thumb if you half the diameter then you double the ratio of surface area to volume.
This leads us to the fact that for a given volume of the shower scrubbies vs the pot scrubbies, you would have vastly more surface area for bacteria to colonise. However the pot scrubbies have more rigidity and will not be crushed under their own weight as material builds up in them, as the shower scrubbies will likely do, reducing uniform water flow through them.
I suggest a mixture of both to get the benefit of increased surface area and rigidity of media in your sump. Stirring them up ocaisionally would help reduce any bridging in the media and keep the nitrate removal process moving along.