Fiber fill as biologic media?

[Marctrees]

Like in the case of 5 gallon bucket filters - We talk about plastic pot scrubbers, lava rock, and other manufactured like bio ball and ceramic stuff for biologic filtering, after the mechanical filtering.

Instead, how about - A second, plumbed in series 5 gal bucket just filled w poly as the "biologic" media?

So, one would weekly or whatever service the first bucket, but the second bucket would just be occasionally checked, and rarely disturbed.

All the particles will be filtered out to around 10 - 15 micron by the first bucket, then the second, undisturbed, would be the bio bed.

Would seem to me to act as an awesome "polisher" also.

Technical thoughts please.

Marc

 

[esoxlucius]

Like in the case of 5 gallon bucket filters - We talk about plastic pot scrubbers, lava rock, and other manufactured like bio ball and ceramic stuff for biologic filtering, after the mechanical filtering.

Instead, how about - A second, plumbed in series 5 gal bucket just filled w poly as the "biologic" media?

So, one would weekly or whatever service the first bucket, but the second bucket would just be occasionally checked, and rarely disturbed.

All the particles will be filtered out to around 10 - 15 micron by the first bucket, then the second, undisturbed, would be the bio bed.

Would seem to me to act as an awesome "polisher" also.

Technical thoughts please.

Marc

You'll be amazed at how much fine gunk will find its way past your mechanical into your poly filter bio bucket. When you say "rarely disturbed" i think you'd find that would turn into "frequently disturbed for rinsing". Bearing in mind your bio side should indeed be rarely disturbed then i think you'd be defeating the object a little. I guess something like that could work on a system where gph turnover and stocking levels were minimal. Then your floss bio bucket might not get clogged so often.

 

[Marctrees]

esoxlucius - This "Gunk", is it particulate that made it by the mech filtration, or is it like bacteria slime?????

Marc

 

[esoxlucius]

esoxlucius - This "Gunk", is it particulate that made it by the mech filtration, or is it like bacteria slime?????

Marc

I've no doubt that some of it will indeed be bacteria but it's the very very finest silt particles which i suspect will be the issue with your idea. I use quite a thick wad of poly floss after my sponges. I change the floss once per week and the top is all brown with fine particles (obviously no big bits at this stage because my fine sponges gets them). As mentioned the top is dirty brown and the bottom is a very pale brown. This is the critical area for me. This pale brown at the bottom suggests to me that very very fine particles are getting through my floss back into my water. If no particles whatsoever were getting through my floss i'd expect the bottom of my floss to be the same pristeen natural colour as when i put it in. But this dosen't matter to me because i'm throwing the wad of floss away once per week anyway. What you're planning on doing is leaving it and using it as your bio. If i did that on my system i have no doubt that my floss, even withing 2 weeks, would be blocked to the extent that the flow in my tank/sump would be disrupted. I'm certain it wouldn't work on my set up but saying that all our set ups are unique. You may get some mileage out of your idea on your set up. Try it and start another thread in a few weeks, let us know how it goes for you. Good luck.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I know this is not exactly the best media because it is not porous. Back in the 1970's I was trying to fill the chamber in a decent sized filter box. This was before the stuff we have access to today was available (or at least I did not know of it.)

I used a thick layer of glass marbles under a few layers of finer material such as polyester floss. The marbles allowed a good flow thru as they do not pack real tight. I would replace the upper layers of floss on a fairly regular basis.

I understand that some of the finer stuff would pass thru the floss and also thru the marble bed. I think this is the case with most any such filter material. My take is that the water in a tank passes thru a filter many times in a day. Say you have a pump flowing at 160 gallons per hour (gph) on a 160 gallon tank. That means 160 gallons pass thru the filter 24 times each day. The floss or other fine filter material slowly traps the smaller material over a few days.

The marbles would develop what I now understand must have been a bio film likely containing some of the beneficial bacteria (bb). After many weeks or a few months the marble bed would get to looking loaded up.
I would do a simple rinse of the marbles maybe two to four times a year. It is my understanding that the bb form a bio-film on surfaces that sticks to surfaces quite well and is not much removed by simple rinsing. ( I can post a link with information about this if you are interested)

 

[esoxlucius]

I think another fundamental, and potentially disasterous flaw with the OP's idea of using floss as bio media is the fact as the floss gradually builds up with gunk the flow of water is hampered somewhat. I don't see how a restricted flow of nutrient and oxygen rich water can help maintain a thriving colony of BB. You wouldn't be getting the full potential out of your bio as you would if you used the traditional materials like bio balls, ceramics for example where water can flow through unrestricted.

 

[Marctrees]

Well, if I saw I had notably reduced flow, I would surely look into it and remedy. Marc

 

[skjl47]

Well, if I saw I had notably reduced flow, I would surely look into it and remedy. Marc

Hello; Yeah his makes sense. Good point.

 

[Marctrees]

So a few of you are saying bio balls, lava rock, scrubee pads, work as bio filter due to surface area.

So, doesn't poly fill have plenty of surface area on the fibers??

So, how is that different ? Other than it will not pass particles like the above coarse bio media ??

Obviously if I saw reduced flow, it would be looked into, kind of a duhh, do ya think?? thing. thing.

Marc

 

[skjl47]

So a few of you are saying bio balls, lava rock, scrubee pads, work as bio filter due to surface area.

Hello; you seem to have hit upon another fish keeping area for which there are several ways to accomplish the same thing and a variety of opinions about how to go about it. Some folks are pretty much set in a way to go about things and to them that is the end of the story. Others go for what is the newest and shiniest technology available. I imagine a few may go for what ever costs the most using the theory that if it cost more it must be better.

Even if the poly fill as a biological media turn out to have some issues, there may be a way to make it work. For me it was decades of rigging things to use as there was either not a commercial product available or it was not to be found in my area (sometimes not in my budget.) So I tried out a lot of things and many did not work out too well. I learned and made modifications. The bed of glass marbles for example was one that turned out well enough. I have also used the carbon as biological media.

With the poly fill it is my guess that if applied in several layers it may work well enough. The initial layers will likely get clogged with detritus and have to be replaced fairly often.

The lower layers may even eventually get clogged as well. I would first try a rotation. If a deep layer became too clogged to flow real well then rotate it to be the first layer for a while with fresh layers below. That way it can then be an initial mechanical layer for a while as well as helping to seed the lower layers with the beneficial bacteria. Not sure exactly how the better way to work this will be, but it might just work.

Maybe separate the poly fill layers with some of the plastic screening material ( I have used this stuff in tanks). With a layer of the screening material between the poly fill layers it should be easier to deal with them. Just a thought.

Some of the fun of running tanks has been playing around with stuff to accomplish a goal.

Have fun with it and good luck.