I have two magnum 350 filters and I had charcoal media in it and it reduced the water flow so much that it was almost not pumping what it was supposed to be. The magnums pump 350gph but with the media in it, it pumped around 100. is there a reason why i should have charcoal media in the filters?
Why should anyone use charcoal media?
- Thread starter idle0095
- Start date
so leaving the baskets empty is fine? i have the filters on there jsut to trp the crap. also i was told i can put bio balls into the media masket. were can i find small bio balls to put into the basket?
idle0095;1023571; said:
might as well use the space for BB, i just filled mine with ceramic rings, hard do find bioball that small...you'll still get some minor reduction in you gph though.
in my 250 i just ran the outside filter for it, and put some nylon material from pot scrubbers in the media basket. i also have a filter rated for 20 galllon running completely full of nylon potscrubbers for the rest of my bio filtration. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites.
I don't use it, but if surface area is how you measure the efficiency of your bio media than you guys are way out of order, activated carbon has literally millions of times more surface area than any other media, 3000 to 20000 square feet of surface area PER GRAM depending on manufacturing process. Look it up.
There are many other benefits to using activated carbon, or charcoal, other than just surface area for bacteria. Activated carbon filters by means of adsorbtion rather than just straining like all other aquarium filter media. Activated Carbon can remove particles much smaller than what other types of filter media can. If you are having a problem with flow it is probably because too large of particles are passing through your other media and clogging the chambers with the carbon (this is why i dont use it).
There are many other benefits to using activated carbon, or charcoal, other than just surface area for bacteria. Activated carbon filters by means of adsorbtion rather than just straining like all other aquarium filter media. Activated Carbon can remove particles much smaller than what other types of filter media can. If you are having a problem with flow it is probably because too large of particles are passing through your other media and clogging the chambers with the carbon (this is why i dont use it).