ZEOLITE FILTER MEDIA

[Pitterpatti]

Hi, was just looking for silica sand sources near Dallas Tx and found this link under pool filtering - NATURAL ZEOLITE FILTER MEDIA

http://www.zeobest.com/_zeobest.html

Does anyone here use zeolite in your media baskets, etc. and how does that work for you.

I see it sold together sometimes with the charcoal too. And I have been thinking of buying the charcoal by the pound to save money since I am running 3 tanks 55 gallon and over. Anyone have any pros and cons about this. I use the Emperor 400s and bought the little socks to put the charcoal in before putting into media basket. Didn't use the last time, and what a mess.

thanks
Patti

 

[stevebussard]

I use it with charcoal in my tank, have for years. Keeps the water crystal clear and amonia free.

 

[ShadowBass]

Zeolite works really well at absorbing ammonia.

That's not a good thing if you want a good colony of nitrifying bacteria on your filter media because as soon as the zeolite loses it's ammonia absorbing abilities (it has to be replaced every so often) you will have an ammonia spike since there isn't a bacterial colony on your media to convert the ammonia.

Bottom line - it's not really necessary if you have an adequate amount of biological filtration in your tank and do water changes regularly.

 

[Morledzep]

in our canister filters, there are 4 baskets.. the bottom basket is empty, the second one is zeolite (for absorbing ammonia), the 3rd one is carbon (for water clarity), and the top one is bio balls or the little ceramic tube thingies for bio-material.

we used to use the mixed carbon and zeolite, but as you'll no doubt read elsewhere we had a problem tank that had serious ammonia spikes and we added significant amounts of zeolite to the filter to try to control it. It certainly helped, but raising the PH and buffering ability of the water worked far better.