Bio filtration in a canister.

[Dristal]

I recently started a 29g freshwater. Going on 4 weeks now, and I am up to 7 fish (3 mollies and 4 tetra) and a zebra snail. My ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all fine. Tank is running great fish are healthy.

However, I am curious about the benefit of bioballs vs. ceramic rings vs. Biohome ultra (found online, LFS doesnt carry) in my canister filter (Aquatop-CF400UV). Currently it has sufficient mechanical filtration, water is always crystal clear, and the top rack has some bioballs in it. Is that good, just okay? Or does it not really matter too much. I would like to have the best possible bio for my tank as I am just starting out.

TL/DR. Should I use Bioballs, Ceramic rings, Biohome Ultra, or some other product for my biological filtration?

PS. Is active carbon worth using and how often should it be replaced?

 

[Mebbid]

I recently started a 29g freshwater. Going on 4 weeks now, and I am up to 7 fish (3 mollies and 4 tetra) and a zebra snail. My ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all fine. Tank is running great fish are healthy.

However, I am curious about the benefit of bioballs vs. ceramic rings vs. Biohome ultra (found online, LFS doesnt carry) in my canister filter (Aquatop-CF400UV). Currently it has sufficient mechanical filtration, water is always crystal clear, and the top rack has some bioballs in it. Is that good, just okay? Or does it not really matter too much. I would like to have the best possible bio for my tank as I am just starting out.

TL/DR. Should I use Bioballs, Ceramic rings, Biohome Ultra, or some other product for my biological filtration?

PS. Is active carbon worth using and how often should it be replaced?

It is very common in the aquaria world for people to go nuts over having as much biological filtration in their tank as humanly possible. The only problem with that, is that the tank will support a specific amount of bacteria and having more surface area than needed to house that amount of bacteria is a waste.

In short, upgrading your bio balls to ceramic rings will make absolutely no difference in regards to tank health. If, all of a sudden you are getting positive readings of ammonia with no other culprit identifiable then you know that you don't have enough biological filter media. However, in 12,000 posts on this forum I have yet to see a single person with that problem.

If you want something other than bio balls for your canister I recommend these:

They can be bought at a dollar store for around $1 for 6 of them or so. They will never ever clog unlike the expensive ceramic media, have a ton of surface area, and are simple to clean. I've been using them in a canister for 2 years now and they work great.

 

[ImACoolguy]

+1 to Mebbid.

It doesn't matter if it's pot scrubbers or bio balls the media just needs a porous material to colonize on.


Caleb

 

[Dristal]

Simple enough. Thanks!
Just wasn't sure if its worth a couple bucks to change.

 

[nwsharksfan]

If I can piggyback on this topic, I was wondering how you clean biologic filtration media when you clean a filter? Should I run water over it? Or clean out the foam and leave the bio balls alone? I've always just rinsed them.... but does this affect the bacteria? I haven't had any issues with my 10 year old fw tank, but now that I'm trying my hand with a more delicate sw reef tank I was wondering.

 

[Dristal]

My tank is still FW, but but the bio balls ive just been leaving them alone. As for the mechanical filter media, im using the old tank water to rinse and ring them out a little in. So far it hasnt adversely affected my tank.

 

[ScotJudd]

My canister has, from the bottom, ceramic tubes, bio balls, sponge and finally floss.
I rinse the ceramic tubes and bio balls in a bucket of tank water, just to remove and waste, then squeeze out the sponge a couple of times in the same water, not too clean, just enough again to remove the waste. I replace the floss which is less than 10% of the total canister volume.
The whole process is just to remove unwanted waste and not to 'clean' the media.


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[claudio1]

i have a fluval 206 and i had ceramic rings as bio filter but always had high nitrates when i tested the water before my WC,so i decided to change it to biohome ultimate and also add an ef-2 filter booster and after about 8 weeks the nitrates stays below 40 ppm,with same weekly WC as before.
i have in the fluval 206 from bottom 1 tray with sponge and floss,middle tray with floss and biohome ultimate and the top tray with biohome ultimate...

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[PB_Smith]

the ideal biological filter media should be able to support both nitrifying bacteria and de-nitrifying bacteria.
The media types that best achieve this are those that provide a lot of both exterior surface area and internal, micro-pore surface area to create anoxic zones within the media.


Sponges, floss and the pot scrubbers are excellent media for supporting nitrifying bacteria due to there great flow rate, but do very little to support de-nitrifying bacteria.


Ceramic, lava rock, pumice, etc. type of media provide both external and internal surface area to support both types of bacteria.
But they often do not excel at supporting the nitrifying bacteria as well as the more open pored media types.
SO, IMHO the best solution is, in order of water flowing through the media;
first coarse/medium sponge
second fine sponge/floss
third bio-media for nitrifying bacteria, pot scrubbers are excellent and economic choice.
fourth bio-media to support de-nitrifying bacteria such as ceramic or even better some form of pumice such as Seachem Matrix or similar.


The De-nitrifying media should always be last as that is where the water is the most oxygen depleted and therefore will best support the proper bacteria.
Just be sure that the return is generating surface agitation in order to replace the depleted oxygen in the return water.

 

[Mebbid]

the ideal biological filter media should be able to support both nitrifying bacteria and de-nitrifying bacteria.
The media types that best achieve this are those that provide a lot of both exterior surface area and internal, micro-pore surface area to create anoxic zones within the media.


Sponges, floss and the pot scrubbers are excellent media for supporting nitrifying bacteria due to there great flow rate, but do very little to support de-nitrifying bacteria.


Ceramic, lava rock, pumice, etc. type of media provide both external and internal surface area to support both types of bacteria.
But they often do not excel at supporting the nitrifying bacteria as well as the more open pored media types.
SO, IMHO the best solution is, in order of water flowing through the media;
first coarse/medium sponge
second fine sponge/floss
third bio-media for nitrifying bacteria, pot scrubbers are excellent and economic choice.
fourth bio-media to support de-nitrifying bacteria such as ceramic or even better some form of pumice such as Seachem Matrix or similar.


The De-nitrifying media should always be last as that is where the water is the most oxygen depleted and therefore will best support the proper bacteria.
Just be sure that the return is generating surface agitation in order to replace the depleted oxygen in the return water.

Planning for denitrifying bacteria is great and all, but a standard filter just created too much flow for this to happen. With a specially made diy filter or a modified canister denitrification is more likely to happen, but not in a stock filter.