Came across this on another site...
- Thread starter slammer
- Start date
Oddball..You talking about the little "sponge in a net" looking things? And the second question was about tank size...IMO if used purely as a bio-filter it should easily do a 100 gallon tank.
12 pounds of these...
...Half in a trickle basket and half in the sump should provide considerable surface area should'nt they? What say you? I checked at my local WalMart and 12 pounds is $7.62. How much are the pot scrubber thingies?
12 pounds of these...
...Half in a trickle basket and half in the sump should provide considerable surface area should'nt they? What say you? I checked at my local WalMart and 12 pounds is $7.62. How much are the pot scrubber thingies?Not the sponge in a net. These are nylon pot scrubbers. I was actually being generous in the surface area of lava rock. Lava rock actually has 16 cu/ft of surface area while pot scrubbers have 370 cu/ft of surface area.
We used to use lava rock before the invention of bio-balls. Alot of the lava rock added acidity to the water. So, we switched to plastic army soldiers and the monkeys from Barrel-O-Monkeys. That's going back a ways though.
We used to use lava rock before the invention of bio-balls. Alot of the lava rock added acidity to the water. So, we switched to plastic army soldiers and the monkeys from Barrel-O-Monkeys. That's going back a ways though.
i kinda like the idea of that if you added more buckets or a larger container this option could do any size tank
Oddball...I am 49. I remember the Army men and "Barrel o' Monkeys" quite well. I also remember making bio-filters from pipe and trash cans in the mid to late 70's and people saying..."WTF is that for?" LOL!!! They built their own when they saw how great the tanks looked.
I switched to bio balls when they first came out and I switched again when cell pore and bio-chem stars became commonly available. I have switched over again now...almost all of my tanks are running fluidized beds...both bought and DIY. I think they are the best "bio-answer" so far.
It's interesting that the scrubbers have so much surface area when they are basically smooth plastic (to the naked eye anyway). Whereas lava rock seems far more porous. Thanks for the info.
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Nic...I agree. I am going to refine the design a bit and build four of these "Bio-Buckets" and stick them on my 300 gallon Rubbermaid tub ponds. I'll do a little report when they are on and working.
I switched to bio balls when they first came out and I switched again when cell pore and bio-chem stars became commonly available. I have switched over again now...almost all of my tanks are running fluidized beds...both bought and DIY. I think they are the best "bio-answer" so far.
It's interesting that the scrubbers have so much surface area when they are basically smooth plastic (to the naked eye anyway). Whereas lava rock seems far more porous. Thanks for the info.
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Nic...I agree. I am going to refine the design a bit and build four of these "Bio-Buckets" and stick them on my 300 gallon Rubbermaid tub ponds. I'll do a little report when they are on and working.
I use this design on my stock bins but, I have the bucket sitting on a polyethylene table inside the bin. Except for the table legs, there's no loss of room and with the filter system inside the bin, there's no leaks outside the bin.