The ultimate biological media?

[jcarson]

Not sure the best way to clean lava rock or ceramic rings.

Im learning about lava rock daily and its "perfect" usages.

Some say lava and ceramic do better fully submerged because as its pores get clogged this media is supposed to be at its best.

Then some say its best as immersed like in wet dry applications like a trickle down.

Some say rinsing in tap is ok, others "SCREAM NO use your tank water stupid!
(gets confusing for me)

I dont know either Jeff but to be honest I feel as if you have a decent load on this media and your water parameters are where they are supposed to be than I dont think it really matters.

And I think this goes for all media in general.

And by the way, I think we all can gain a lot from your wisdom and "seasoned " experience.

 

[jcarson]

Not sure the best way to clean lava rock or ceramic rings.

Im learning about lava rock daily and its "perfect" usages.

Some say lava and ceramic do better fully submerged because as its pores get clogged this media is supposed to be at its best.

Then some say its best as immersed like in wet dry applications like a trickle down.

Some say rinsing in tap is ok, others "SCREAM NO use your tank water stupid!
(gets confusing for me)

I dont know either Jeff but to be honest I feel as if you have a decent load on this media and your water parameters are where they are supposed to be than I dont think it really matters.

And I think this goes for all media in general.

And by the way, I think we all can gain a lot from your wisdom and "seasoned " experience.

 

[duanes]

I like to place any bio-media in mesh bags (lava rock, rings, whatever), that way when I do a water change, I pull out the bag shaking off any excess mulm in a bucket of old water, and toss the bag back in the sump, this is very often for me, because I do @ 3 or four, 30%-40% water changes per week.
Beneficial bacteria are facultative aerobes, living as biofilm on the surface of the media, so old less robust colonies are shaken off, and replaced by younger more robust colonies regularly.

My normal job was in a water filtration plant, that used biological filters.
We would backwash each filter every 3 or 4 days, or more often if media slowed (head loss) or had breakthrough of certain size particulate (all filters served as bio and mechanical).
Part of my lob was to evaluate the filters efficiency, in both capacities, and the backwash routine was decided after many trials and experiments.

 

[TexasMFK31]

Seachem matrix is a top ceramic media if you are going that route. In addition relatively cheap, in $32 for 1 gallon of the media. Not to mention, the little bucket that comes with it is handy for storing things. I run this, and marinepure in my tanks with no issue.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Hello; Let me mention two not common media I have used. Back in the 1970's I somehow got around to stacking my filters with a primary layer usually some sort of floss and after that a layer of some sort of hard material.
I used glass marbles that worked well. The marbles were not porous but when stacked in layers spaces were created between them which allowed plenty of water flow. I guess the surface of the glass can be roughed up so to create lots more surface area. They were easy to clean if they ever got loaded with mulm/detritus which was a bit rare. I get that they had much less total surface area than lava rock and such but there were no pores to get clogged up.
Another material I used for years was a type of carbon meant to be used in a filter. I had a large bag of the stuff and for years used it as a secondary layer in my filters. I was mistaken in my thinking back then when I would rinse the carbon and then bake it in my home oven. I thought I was recharging the carbon but since learned that is not possible in a home oven. However the rinsing and the baking did a job of cleaning the carbon. I think the organic bits in the pores was to some extent baked out. This apparently made the carbon porous again and it was a decent biological media.

I guess the best biological media is al the surfaces in a tank and not just in a filter. I do figure the media in a filter has a good chance of becoming a surface for beneficial bacteria (bb) due to consistent water flow. Nothing wrong with using a decent media in filters as long as it is cleaned when clogged up. However the tank will have lots of surfaces with bb colonies as a film.

Is the type of carbon youre typing of shaped in coarse, larger pellet size than the typical activated carbon? I have about 20 lbs of this stuff and was thinking about throwing it in my sump. While i typically only use carbon when the situation calls for ut, I've been thinking this carbon would serve as good bio media yet still allow adequate flow because of its coarse quality.

 

[skjl47]

Is the type of carbon youre typing of shaped in coarse, larger pellet size than the typical activated carbon?

Hello; Yes it was. I also had a large bag back in the day. I now understand two things about the carbon.
One is that it is only effective at binding things from the water for a short while. The carbon attaches to molecules by what is called adsorption which makes a very strong bond. Once loaded it is no longer able to bind any more stuff.
The second thing was that it makes a decent bio-media. I would have plenty of floss in front but eventually the carbon would get visually covered with tank detritus. At that point I would have some clean carbon to place in a filter and would take out the dirty carbon. I would physically clean it with water and then bake it at my ovens highest temp. The baking did not recharge the carbon but did cook away a lot of trapped organic junk.
I do like Duane's suggestion of using a mesh bag for bio media. That way it can be packaged into small units. Say six mesh bags of the stuff would fit in a filter chamber. Then I could switch out two or three at a time and leave plenty so the bb population would not be much affected.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Hello; Yes it was. I also had a large bag back in the day. I now understand two things about the carbon.
One is that it is only effective at binding things from the water for a short while. The carbon attaches to molecules by what is called adsorption which makes a very strong bond. Once loaded it is no longer able to bind any more stuff.
The second thing was that it makes a decent bio-media. I would have plenty of floss in front but eventually the carbon would get visually covered with tank detritus. At that point I would have some clean carbon to place in a filter and would take out the dirty carbon. I would physically clean it with water and then bake it at my ovens highest temp. The baking did not recharge the carbon but did cook away a lot of trapped organic junk.
I do like Duane's suggestion of using a mesh bag for bio media. That way it can be packaged into small units. Say six mesh bags of the stuff would fit in a filter chamber. Then I could switch out two or three at a time and leave plenty so the bb population would not be much affected.

Yeah the only reason i use it is when i need to deodorize my tanks quickly. Usually when surprise guests are inbound (two of my tanks are in the guest bedroom). The deodorizing effect usually only lasts a week at most, but i noticed my canister performed pretty well when i loaded it full with the coarse carbon a while back.

Since i now have a solid water change schedule down i dont really use it anymore. But i do have a 75 gallon sump to fill with media so it should be useful.

 

[NVTE]

I used Pumice rock for garden as bio filter (also feather rock). I think it is same material as Seachem media with fraction of the cost.