Media question

the big kahuna

Aimara
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Oct 13, 2007
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Would submersible media like pond Matrix and bio home work effectively in a trickle filter?
 

esoxlucius

Alligator Gar
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Would submersible media like pond Matrix and bio home work effectively in a trickle filter?
As I understand it, anything porous with loads of surface area is best submerged so bacteria gets inside the microscopic nooks and crannies.

Anything not porous, like those plastic bio balls, are ideal for trickle systems because you just need the surface to get colonised and the surface can get readily colonised when water is trickling over them.
 

Rocksor

Blue Tier VIP
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Nov 28, 2011
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It will work as effectively as plastic bio-balls or pot scrubbies in a trickle filtration system. Albeit, it would cost more than said plastic items.
 

Oughtsix

Redtail Catfish
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The design of bio-balls with all of there little bumps and spikes help them break the incoming stream of water down to drops of water when used in a trickle filter. Many types of media designed to be submerged will not break up the water stream and you end up with channels of water flowing through the media, so some media gets a lot of water contact and much of the media doesn't get hardly any water contact. This is why I like bio balls for trickle filters.

Pretty much any media will work in a trickle filter though. A good trickle plate that breaks the incoming tank water up into a LOT of different streams will help spread the water out more evenly over the media which will make it more effective. I have even seen some rotating bar configurations for trickle filters where a bar constantly rotates over the media to help keep the water from channeling though the media.

If you already have some media you want to use in a trickle filter... go for it! If you are buying new media my preference would be the bio balls with the pointy spikes on the outsides. The ~1 inch diameter bio-balls seem to me to be about the best size for breaking up the water streams with the way I have my trickle filters configured and with the particular flow rate I have.

To me bio-balls aren't all that great for use as submersed media. There are other medias that have much more surface are for their size. Even very cheap lava rock should have considerably more surface area than bio-balls.
 
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the big kahuna

Aimara
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new york city
Seems as if it would work but I'm not 100% sure.
 

Oughtsix

Redtail Catfish
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Seems as if it would work but I'm not 100% sure.

A better description of your tickle filter and maybe even a picture would probably help. Do you already have the other media and that is why you want to use it? Pond Matrix or Bio Home will definitely work in a trickle filter. Are you making your own trickle filter or using an off the shelf trickle filter sump?

P.S. I always put an air stone underneath the bio-balls in my trickle filters to provide an small flow or air up through the media as the water trickles down through the media. The huge air/water surface area a trickle filter creates it what I like about trickle filters. The huge surface area is really beneficial for oxygenation of the water and off gassing of some of the organic compounds.
 
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