Best Mech & Bio Filtrations

[DeeLee2013]

What kind of mechanical and biological filtration do you use? Which brands have worked best for you? Are you using a HOB or a canister?
Just curious ? Thanks!


? Diana Lee ?
? the Redhead ?

 

[Reefer James]

Canister is always the way to go. Sunsun has always moved water up and down good through filter media for me...

 

[Mebbid]

I find plastic pot scrubbers to be very very good source for biological filtration in a canister filter.

They never ever clog, are super cheap, and have tons of room for biological media. They aren't really the best option for a HOB filter though.

I guess our suggestion really depends on what type of filter you are planning on buying.

 

[gemach7]

In my pond canister filter after tweaking it cause the stock setup and debris equaled way too much cleaning. Have had success with a mixture bio balls and (pond) matrix from seachem.

In my community tank I use fluval g-nodes inside my HOBs.

 

[candymancan]

The best biologicial media is actually the glass media.. the little tiny balls that come with eheim filters.. They are glass like lava rock almost and those are ultimately the best you can buy.... pot scrubbers are **** compared to them.


You can buy these little glass balls in petsmart under the name National geographic.. National geographic is actually eheim products rebranded




http://www.bigalspets.com/substrat-...son+Shopping&gclid=CImfuJzrp8YCFYU9gQodMMMBvw

 

[Mebbid]

pot scrubbers are **** compared to them.

I am curious to know your reasoning behind that statement.

 

[Delapool]

The best biologicial media is actually the glass media.. the little tiny balls that come with eheim filters.. They are glass like lava rock almost and those are ultimately the best you can buy.... pot scrubbers are **** compared to them.


You can buy these little glass balls in petsmart under the name National geographic.. National geographic is actually eheim products rebranded




http://www.bigalspets.com/substrat-...son+Shopping&gclid=CImfuJzrp8YCFYU9gQodMMMBvw

Are they porous out of interest? When you said glass balls I was thinking glass sinter but that looks different? Is it glass or something else - bit hard to tell on pics.

 

[Fresh2o]

I'm using an hob. Would like to try a sunsun. Stock media minus the carbon and polyfil for extra mechanical filtration.
Eheim Substrat Pro is sintered glass. Here is a link to a geeky article by Seachem discussing porosity of Matrix versus Substrat Pro: http://www.seachem.com/support/SpecificSurface.pdf
Surface area and porosity are meaningless if not preceded with decent mechanical filtration.



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[candymancan]

I am curious to know your reasoning behind that statement.

Think about it, pot scrubbers don't have nearly the surface area as a porous cintered glass or quartz surface like those I linked.. Plastic isn't nearly as porous as sintered glass... its a solid surface and do you honestly think a intertwined structure like that would have more surface area ? I don't think so..


Ehfisubstrat is a sintered glass that offers a huge surface area of nearly 19,000 square feet per gallon. You couldn't even hope to achieve that with bio balls or pot scrubbers, or any kind of plastic material

Just because its big doesn't mean it has more usable surface area for microbes.. This is the reason why BIO balls and especially pot scrubbers are some of the lower end bio media.. They are only good because they are dirt cheap... but scientifically and biologically they don't even come close to sintered glass


Pot scrubbers are useless, they are only maybe good for mechanical filtration, a regular filter floss pad had way more surface area then a pot scrubber does... Think about it, use some common sense

 

[candymancan]

Are they porous out of interest? When you said glass balls I was thinking glass sinter but that looks different? Is it glass or something else - bit hard to tell on pics.

Yea that's what I ment, those balls are glass/quartz sinter... They have wayyyy more surface area then a plastic pot scrubber or plastic bio balls

I'm using an hob. Would like to try a sunsun. Stock media minus the carbon and polyfil for extra mechanical filtration.
Eheim Substrat Pro is sintered glass. Here is a link to a geeky article by Seachem discussing porosity of Matrix versus Substrat Pro: http://www.seachem.com/support/SpecificSurface.pdf
Surface area and porosity are meaningless if not preceded with decent mechanical filtration.



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Yes and this is why you put 2 good layers of mechanical filtration before the bio media. As for Matrix for 10x better then eheim substrates.. Id take that with a gr ain of salt. I like seachem, but they are also good con artists when it comes to certain porducts I have noticed. Matrix is nothing more then a pummic stone you can buy in bulk for much cheaper then those $20 bottles. sometimes its mixed with a lot of different mineral stones by accident I have matrix in some of my tanks and I had to pick to a lot of stones out of it before I used it.

 

[PNWaquarist]

Best Mech & Bio Filtrations

Think about it, pot scrubbers don't have nearly the surface area as a porous cintered glass or quartz surface like those I linked.. Plastic isn't porous... its a solid surface and do you honestly think a intertwined structure like that would have more surface area ? I don't think so..

Just because its big doesn't mean it has more usable surface area for microbes.. This is the reason why BIO balls are some of the worse biological media..


Pot scrubbers are useless, they are only maybe good for mechanical filtration, a regular filter floss pad had way more surface area then a pot scrubber does... Think about it, use some common sense

Given this logic, I would think that porous ceramic pieces would be even better than glass beads.



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[Mebbid]

Yea that's what I ment, those balls are glass/quartz sinter... They have wayyyy more surface area then a plastic pot scrubber or plastic bio balls

It's fun what can be done with a little research.
MarinePureâ„¢ Testimonials This link even includes talking about your treasured substrat pro.

Take a good read of this Candy. Particularly this:

Essentially, in a mature biofilter, only the surface area on the outside of the media is really usable in most circumstances, unless the media has some way to stay clean, flush mulm and flush old inefficient layers of biofilm.
Bioballs, will very rarely clog, but only has aerobic biofilms colonizing its surface area as it has no internal pore structure to utilize for de-nitrification.
Sintered glass medias will not appear to clog (apart from visible mulm deposits) but as biofilms build up, the internal pore structure not only gets blocked, but as internal flow is reduced, any bacteria that may be residing in the internal structure of the media cannot get oxygen or water flow to bring the waste to it that it is designed to digest.
Marine pure also, like bioballs, very rarely clogs, because the holes in the pore structure are much larger (visible to the naked eye) the water can freely flow through the media, any waste that does pass into the media will usually pass straight through or be very easily flushed when the media is maintained as part of regular filter maintenance.

That right there is exactly why the plastic pot scrubbers are soo efficient. They will never, ever clog. Every sq. inch of that media is always available for use by the bio media as it doesn't clog.

And for when you complain about them not having much surface area, here's another link for you.

Beginners Guide to Filter Media | MonsterFishKeepers.com

The intwined structure of the pot scrubbers is what gives it the huge amount of surface area.

 

[candymancan]

Given this logic, I would think that porous ceramic pieces would be even better than glass beads.



Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

How would you think that ? Sintered glass still has a lot more surface area.

 

[candymancan]

It's fun what can be done with a little research.
MarinePureâ„¢ Testimonials This link even includes talking about your treasured substrat pro.

Take a good read of this Candy. Particularly this:


That right there is exactly why the plastic pot scrubbers are soo efficient. They will never, ever clog. Every sq. inch of that media is always available for use by the bio media as it doesn't clog.

And for when you complain about them not having much surface area, here's another link for you.

Beginners Guide to Filter Media | MonsterFishKeepers.com

That's why you put your filtration media before the biological media, ? You might as well put gravel in your filters.. geesh

 

[Mebbid]

That's why you put your filtration media before the biological media, are you stupid are something ? You might as well put gravel in your filters.. geesh

Read again,

intered glass medias will not appear to clog (apart from visible mulm deposits) but as biofilms build up, the internal pore structure not only gets blocked, but as internal flow is reduced, any bacteria that may be residing in the internal structure of the media cannot get oxygen or water flow to bring the waste to it that it is designed to digest.

I wouldn't expect you to know what a biofilm is, so here's the definition

Biofilm - A biofilm is any group of microorganisms in which cells stick to each other on a surface. These adherent cells are frequently embedded within a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS).

No amount of filtering will ever stop a biofilm.

 

[candymancan]

Read again,

intered glass medias will not appear to clog (apart from visible mulm deposits) but as biofilms build up, the internal pore structure not only gets blocked, but as internal flow is reduced, any bacteria that may be residing in the internal structure of the media cannot get oxygen or water flow to bring the waste to it that it is designed to digest.


I wouldn't expect you to know what a biofilm is, so here's the definition
Biofilm - A biofilm is any group of microorganisms in which cells stick to each other on a surface. These adherent cells are frequently embedded within a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS).

No amount of filtering will ever stop a biofilm.

Yes I know what bio film is its the brown stuff that builds up on all of your filter media... This is why you clean your filters..... even pot srubbers would get this crap on them reduction water flow, but if your going to keep arguing saying that a dollar store pot scrubber is the best media im just going to end it here.. Arguing with an ignorant person dead set on his beliefs only ends one way.. Just look at religion for example.. If this were the best media, do you not think it would be sold in fish stores all over the world ? Do you not think that these companies would be promoting this instead ? Pot scrubbers are the same thing as those blue course media MECHANICAL pads




Sorry but I have said my piece, pot scrubbers are not better, and if you don't clear your filters every month at least then none of the media will be very helpful anyway because of that bio film that builds up.

 

[Mebbid]

Read again,

Yes I know what bio film is its the brown stuff that builds up on all of your filter media... This is why you clean your filters..... even pot srubbers would get this crap on them reduction water flow, but if your going to keep arguing saying that a dollar store pot scrubber is the best media im just going to end it here.. Arguing with an ignorant person dead set on his beliefs only ends one way.. Just look at religion for example..

Sorry but I have said my piece, pot scrubbers are not better, and if you don't clear your filters every month at least then none of the media will be very helpful anyway because of that bio film that builds up.

The brown stuff is mulm.

Also, a test of the load capacity of sintered ceramics. It's just a little bit better than bio balls or an empty filter.

http://www.cermedia.com/MarinePure Project Report.pdf

 

[ScotJudd]

Hi DeeLee, now see what you've started! LOL.
I run two canister filters on my 260l tank. Both filter through ceramic rings, bio balls, course foam, fine foam and then filter floss (in that order) topped off with Seachem Purigen. One works at approx 700 l/hr and is the main muck buster, the second at 300 l/hr with a UV steriliser plumbed into the return pipe. Works for me!


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[DeeLee2013]

I appreciate all polite input.
I really asked only because I was curious about all of the different methods and mindsets. Not trying to prove anything. Just feeding curiosity and learning from everyone.


? Diana Lee ?
? the Redhead ?

 

[sinibotia]

A sponge filter on every tank, along with whatever other filter I happen to have lying around or find on the cheap. I don't worry about mechanical filtration, that's what weekly water changes are for!

Also, for what it's worth, you really need to get into some crazy stocking levels before you need to worry about having enough surface area for bacteria. I've never had an issue no matter what I use. As long as you have sufficient filtration overall you shouldn't have to worry about it.