Ehiem Substrate or bioballs

[HugeGhost]

Just bought ehiem substrate for my 2 canisters cost me a fortune! Spent over 200 dollars but i wanted the best stuff in my canisters an ehiem and an xp3! I was reading the surface area on the stuff at 18,300 sq.ft.
So if bioballs are 130 would that not be almost 20 times the surface area than bioballs?

My question is should i replace my 30 gallons of bioballs and plastic rings in my wetdry and then have the greatest filter on earth. Or maybe put substrate on the bottom 4 inchse of my sump and have the other 12 inches just bioballs?

I have also filstars from rena anybody know how they rate?

 

[WyldFya]

Bio-balls are overpriced IMO, and they aren't too good for surface area compared to some other medias. I use potscrubbers in my wet/dry, and they are amazing. Way more surface area than bio-ball. Ehfisubstrat pro is great stuff, and both my eheim 2028, and 2080 are using that. Cell-pore IMO is the best for surface area, but the flow rate gets restricted, because this stuff is in cubes or sheets. There is a thread that I think Oddball started that has the different surface areas of different medias. I'll try to find that for ya.

 

[davo]

scrubbies are great, and inexpensive, just go down the pound shop... or dollar shop or whatever

 

[WyldFya]

Haha, that just sound like somewhere you'd go to get the tar beat out of you... the pound shop! Just wierd thing to hear around here.

 

[davo]

Haha, that just sound like somewhere you'd go to get the tar beat out of you... the pound shop! Just wierd thing to hear around here.

lol. just our currency.

 

[WyldFya]

Yup... Just sounds funny to those that haven't been outside the US in the last 2 decades.