Best bio media

I have a large tank I run with a sump. For years I used bioballs but for the past year Poret sponges have been the biomedia. They are much better than bioballs, I haven't had a single outbreak of green water since getting them into the sump. Very impressed with sponges. The not Poret sponge that came with my sump a decade ago is still sponging away too, sponges are very long lasting!

I love Matrix media, I use it in everything

Plants.

OrangeSoda said:

Plants.

Click to expand...

lol


Go to homedepot and buy a 10 ft of cross linked polyethylene and cut to rings at home works great and cost next to nothing. Higher surface area than any marketed bio media (except p.e. biomedia which is the same material....) I have some in all my baskets never goes anaerobic because excess film rinsed off during normal flow. Haven't had any issues.

Note polyethelene and PVC are not the same.

Kathyy, do you have a picture of your sump? I'd like to see how you laid it out.

Growstones is a very interesting media. Thanks for pointing us at them DogFish.
There are instruction on the site for properly preparing Growstones for use as they are going to mess with the pH for a while. Instructions are about half way down the page. These could be useful for buffering.

Being made from vitreous soda lime glass, Growstones have a naturally high pH. When first in contact with water, the carbonates present at the surface of Growstones aggregates leach out into solution driving the pH up. In order to counteract this, Growstone has incorporated a pH buffer in the formulation of the medium.

I use pot scrubbers. For the surface area they are literally unbeatable. They look like metal spongers but are a hard plastic.

Which media do the bacteria colonize the best?
Which media has the highest surface area?
Which media has the right pore size? Allows optimum water flow. Not too high to knock the bacteria off, not too low so the bacteria get the oxygen and other things they need. Does not plug up creating no-flow areas that become anaerobic, needs least cleaning.

To keep it clean and free flowing other mechanical media should be ahead of bio-media so the debris is filtered out before it gets to the bio media.
The volume of bio media and pore size of the bio media needs to be balanced with the pump so there is the right flow rate through the media itself, and so the whole tank gets filtered often enough.

[email protected] said:

Growstones is a very interesting media. Thanks for pointing us at them DogFish.
There are instruction on the site for properly preparing Growstones for use as they are going to mess with the pH for a while. Instructions are about half way down the page. These could be useful for buffering.

Being made from vitreous soda lime glass, Growstones have a naturally high pH. When first in contact with water, the carbonates present at the surface of Growstones aggregates leach out into solution driving the pH up. In order to counteract this, Growstone has incorporated a pH buffer in the formulation of the medium.

Click to expand...

I've has them in my G3 for a few days so far. I've been rinsing out the bio-media in 3mo intervals. If I can remember this thread I'll follow-up. I will cut one of the larger Pc in 1/2 with a dremel as part of my review.

i personally like bio -bale.. seems to suit my needs wonderfully!
hasn't needed cleaned yet