How Important Is Bio Media?

[Toby_H]

one question i have is i would think that some where out there is the research that says how much bb in a square inch can handle a certain ppm of ammonia per gallon,i know this can differ because of oxygen levels etc. but at least a ball park idea then we could add according to are tanks.i mean with all the large aquariums,water treatment plants and so on the info has to be out there then we would not have to rely on guess work or what a filter company tells us

Early in my attempts to “educate” myself on these matters I thought so too. The problems I came up with is there is no “given rate” that bacteria will consume ammonia… It’s exceptionally difficult to determine what volume of ammonia a fish produces… and with bacteria being a living organism, there is no set volume per square inch…

From the information I could gather, there just seem to be too many variables to establish a rational equation.

Maybe I am doing something wrong with the ac110s but when I just pull the sponges out alone junk gets thrown back into the tank. I found I usually have to pull the whole unit off , usually spilling water in the meantime.

I completely disagree with how Hagen suggests you stack the media in them. I put a block sponge on top and on bottom I put quilt stuffing or another sponge or nothing at all… Hagen suggests you put the sponge on bottom which allows a whole list of errors to occur…

I turn the filters off as I remove the sponges. I have all my tanks set up with all the filters & heaters on a single power strip therefore when I do water changes or tank maintenance I push one button and everything (except the lights) turn off).

When I say breaking down waste I mean from solid to liquid. My feeling is this happens with large amounts of biomedia

Well then you are using your “Bio Media” as “Mechanical Media”… The problem I see with this is “Bio Media” is not designed to be cleaned easily and physically broken down waste in Bio Media leads to clogged pores thus making the “Bio Media” less effective.

 

[Jgray152]

I feel most sumps are set up with huge amounts of space wasted creating man many times more "Bio Media" than any system could ever use..

THANK YOU!!!! Everyone thought I was throwing disinformation out there when I was trying to prove the sump rule was out of control.

Anyone who believes in the sump rule, LIVE AND LEARN!

 

[Jgray152]

and also slows down flow rates making the overall filter less efficient.

Not true if you are not using micron filtration or small particle filtration pads.

 

[ward1066]

Well then you are using your “Bio Media” as “Mechanical Media”… The problem I see with this is “Bio Media” is not designed to be cleaned easily and physically broken down waste in Bio Media leads to clogged pores thus making the “Bio Media” less effective.

well i clean my biomedia once a year and it has never clogged, prefilter on the 2180 I clean every 6 months, biomedia yearly. prefilter on sump is every month. takes 5 seconds to repalce sump filter.

 

[syndicate]

You's all make good points I prefer overfilterd then just enough

 

[dwilder]

im tired of looking but i am finding some info on possible ways to figure out how much surface area is needed so i would assume the info is out there http://www.akca.org/library/surface.htm http://www.lincolnu.edu/PDFFiles/luce/publications/Swine%20Barn%20Conversion.pdf

 

[spaulding]

I completely disagree with how Hagen suggests you stack the media in them. I put a block sponge on top and on bottom I put quilt stuffing or another sponge or nothing at all… Hagen suggests you put the sponge on bottom which allows a whole list of errors to occur…





i was just curious as to your thinking about this. why do you stack the way you do?

 

[dwilder]

if you put your biomedia before your mechanical filtration the bio media gets clogged

 

[vietmanx]

jgray and nutcase, what do most people do with sumps? i always had the assumption that people used it for storing hurt fish, or feeder fish or heater/equipment hiding. I've always wanted to make a community tank under my predatory tank.

 

[Jgray152]

jgray and nutcase, what do most people do with sumps? i always had the assumption that people used it for storing hurt fish, or feeder fish or heater/equipment hiding. I've always wanted to make a community tank under my predatory tank.

Filtration (Mechanical, Bio, Chemical)
Hiding Heaters, skimmers, etc.
Sometimes to house fry
maybe a built in refug

Problem is, someone will get a 180 gallon tank and use a 75 gallon or 120 gallon sump!! way to big. Problem is, most of the mods or higher known members will suggest the use of those large sumps and tell me and others we don't know what we are talking about when we tell them they can go smaller.

No one does calculations anymore. Everything is done by assumptions.

You could use a 45 gallon sump that measure 36 x 12 x 24. That is with 10" of water in the sump. At 0.13 Liters per gallon (something manufactures go by, they actually use a little less) that would equal out to be 23 liters for a 180 gallon tank. Then people tell me that is not counting an overstocked tank when in fact it is. That is also with a max of 1" of water draining out of the 180 gallon tank during shut down.

You could use less than 23 liters and I am sure if you had enough decora you may not need any but bio media in a filter is a safe haven for bacteria to thrive without being disturbed.

This is where my sump calculator comes into play but many think its useless, faulty and has no safety when it has many built in safeties.