Good quality filter media for aquariums

[jacobfata]

Hello all, I have a question again. As most of you know I have a 90gallon with the sump filter now. It’s running with the filter sock which I replaced every three days with a washed out one. In the filter sock I have a few packs of certain media. The guy at the local aquarium fish store recommended these media packs for my Discus aquarium. I couldn’t even tell you the name of them. But I’m wondering what you guys use. I want my Discus aquarium to be soft and acidic and the right and best water quality. Do you guys have any suggestions or filter media especially for discus that I can add to my sunk filter that would benefit my Discus? Any help would be greatly appreciated thank you for your time.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I use 5-10 lbs of ceramic media and 1000 bio balls. It’s all submerged media.

 

[jacobfata]

I use 5-10 lbs of ceramic media and 1000 bio balls. It’s all submerged media.

Can you link me to this online? And how does it benefit The water? I was looking for something that might help lower the ph And make the water more discus friendly if anyone has any recommendations..

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Can you link me to this online? And how does it benefit The water? I was looking for something that might help lower the ph And make the water more discus friendly if anyone has any recommendations..

These are just media’s with a lot of surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow. They will have no effect on ph.

As I mentioned in one of your other threads, though, you really shouldn’t go chasing a lower ph. Your discus will be much better off with a higher, consistent ph of your tap water rather than a ph that shifts because you’re trying to make it closer to their natural habitat. If you truly want water with a lower ph, then you really need to get an RO unit and use a buffer designed for discus. The RO unit will cost a bit, but you can get 55 gallon plastic food grade barrels for $10-20 on Craigslist.

 

[jacobfata]

These are just media’s with a lot of surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow. They will have no effect on ph.

As I mentioned in one of your other threads, though, you really shouldn’t go chasing a lower ph. Your discus will be much better off with a higher, consistent ph of your tap water rather than a ph that shifts because you’re trying to make it closer to their natural habitat. If you truly want water with a lower ph, then you really need to get an RO unit and use a buffer designed for discus. The RO unit will cost a bit, but you can get 55 gallon plastic food grade barrels for $10-20 on Craigslist.

Thank you for bringing that up. I started out using ph down in the beginning and now have a ph of 6.8 but noticing the drastic shift that happened so fast with the chemical, I won’t be using it again. Slowly overtime, I’m going to move them up to the regular tap ph and keep it stable and consistent.

 

[jacobfata]

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[tlindsey]

These are just media’s with a lot of surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow. They will have no effect on ph.

As I mentioned in one of your other threads, though, you really shouldn’t go chasing a lower ph. Your discus will be much better off with a higher, consistent ph of your tap water rather than a ph that shifts because you’re trying to make it closer to their natural habitat. If you truly want water with a lower ph, then you really need to get an RO unit and use a buffer designed for discus. The RO unit will cost a bit, but you can get 55 gallon plastic food grade barrels for $10-20 on Craigslist.

Great advice on the PH.

 

[deeda]

The filter socks shouldn't have media in them as far as I'm aware as they are only meant for mechanical filtration. Any bio-media or chemical media should be in a different section of your sump.

 

[jacobfata]

The filter socks shouldn't have media in them as far as I'm aware as they are only meant for mechanical filtration. Any bio-media or chemical media should be in a different section of your sump.

Wow ok thank you for telling me that! I have no idea how it makes sense to just move them to the next compartment but I’ll do that now. I figured it all passes through the same thing so where they are positioned wouldn’t matter but I trust what you say and will move them to the next compartment now. Any suggestions on media products that I can add to my sump to better my water quality or benefit the discus? I have a few bags of different media suggested by the LFS but I want the best of the best for my aquarium and would appreciate any suggested media I can purchase online.. to add to my sump.

 

[Rocksor]

I use 5-10 lbs of ceramic media and 1000 bio balls. It’s all submerged media.

I believe plastic bioballs work best in a trickle filter which maximizes air time. Being submerged, not only do they tend to float, but they aren't porous like ceramic media. The bioballs dont hold enough of the bacterial slime (colonies of bacteria) when submerged where in a trickle filter, you can seem the large amount of bacterial colonies in the thick slime.