[Aventus]

Hi guys,
I have registered with you because I would be interested to know if Seachem Matrix breaks down nitrates for you? I come from Germany and Seachem Matrix is very hyped here. All the well-known aquascapers, such as Liquid Nature, use it. I have been using Sera Siporax for a long time, which must be quite similar to Matrix, but I am very dissatisfied with it because it literally eats up nitrate and phosphate.
There is also a scene in Germany that prefers low-level filtration. Their view is that high-performance filter media are useless in a planted aquarium. They use very few sponges and, at most, additional ceramic rolls that are not made of sintered glass.
What is your opinion on high performance filter media? Aquariumgardens also uses Matrix, why? I am just quite puzzled.
Many greetings from Germany

 

[Oso Polar]

I've never used it, looks like any other porous bio-media. Lets suppose it really has such small and deep pores that denitrifying bacteria live inside in huge quantities and noticeably reduce NO3 level - why do I want to reduce NO3 level in a planted tank?

 

[Aventus]

Yes, that is exactly my point. That makes no sense in a planted aquarium. Only in a fish aquarium. Nevertheless, Green Aqua, Aquariumgardens, Liquid Nature and well-known aquascapers all use Seachem Matrix. I would be interested to know what kind of biological material the aquariums in the ADA Gallery use? Their own filter material is also a high-performance filter medium.

 

[Agro78]

Nitrate and phosphate is food for plants.
If in a plantacquarium have high value you have big problem, an this is not a solution.
I see every country have own aquarium practice.

 

[Kitsune]

Hi Aventus,

nice to see you here, too!
The Avatar should tell you who I am in the other forum with the "low-level filtration" enthusiast, I know exactly who you mean haha

I think the Bio Rio is not as extreme as Siporax and Matrix when it comes to porosity ... I also assume Siporax with its cylindrical shape promotes denitrification a lot more than Matrix, since the water doesn't get "caught" in Matrix the way it does in the tubes.

 

[LidijaPN]

I’m pretty sure Matrix is basically well-marketed pumice.

 

[Kitsune]

I’m pretty sure Matrix is basically well-marketed pumice.

Are you 100% sure? Because you're absolutely right!
Look what I found on their website, the safety data sheet. See section 3.

DROPBOX LINK REMOVED

However, I don't think it's any pumice, but selected one ... if that justifies the price, everyone has to know for themselves.

 

[LidijaPN]

Are you 100% sure? Because you're absolutely right!
Look what I found on their website, the safety data sheet. See section 3.

DROPBOX LINK REMOVED

However, I don't think it's any pumice, but selected one ... if that justifies the price, everyone has to know for themselves.

Selected shmelected, any pumice at similar grain size will perform the same for you probably.... marketing truly is magic.

 

[Jaguar]

Yes, that is exactly my point. That makes no sense in a planted aquarium. Only in a fish aquarium. Nevertheless, Green Aqua, Aquariumgardens, Liquid Nature and well-known aquascapers all use Seachem Matrix. I would be interested to know what kind of biological material the aquariums in the ADA Gallery use? Their own filter material is also a high-performance filter medium.

probably because Seachem pays them to use/promote it lol
Surely ADA Gallery uses Bio Rio

 

[Qwedfg]

Green aqua did a video on different bio media you can look it up on their YouTube. They took scanning electron microscope shots of the different media to see if one was really better than another and ot appeared that matrix was the most porous.

 

[somewhatshocked]

However, I don't think it's any pumice, but selected one

It's just regular pumice, sifted for uniform sizes.

If one searches around here on the forum, they'll find some test threads where a few different media - matrix/pumice and others - are put to the test. Pretty impressive.

 

[Kitsune]

Just for reference, that Dropbox link was directly from the Seachem website. Is linking to product pages not allowed? Asking since it was removed...

 

[LidijaPN]

Just for reference, that Dropbox link was directly from the Seachem website. Is linking to product pages not allowed? Asking since it was removed...

sometimes bots automatically remove 'suspicious' seeming links as a safety precaution, doesn't mean a person took it down. I think if a mod took down your link they'd let you know?

 

[somewhatshocked]

Dropbox and other files sharing links for things like PDFs routinely get hijacked on forums like this. You could instead link directly to the Seachem site using a Seachem URL, @Kitsune.

Our system flagged it, the moderation team removed it.

 

[Kitsune]

Okies.

Seachem - Matrix

Scroll down -> Click on safety -> Click on Download Safety Data Sheet (SDS)

 

[ddiomede]

Honestly, you could buy aquarium gravel, bag it, and it'll basically be as effective as any of the designer bio medias.

My first 15-20 years in the aquarium hobby consisted of regular old aquarium gravel, with an under gravel filter driven by a powerhead.

Until last year, I kept reef aquariums for a decade. Didn't use a single piece of biological filtration media.

The shop I worked at during my teens in the 90's, our entire marine system was filtered by regular old crushed coral in a big DIY trickle filter system.

With that being said, everything in the tank becomes your biological filter, the glass, plants, sand, etc. Adding biological filtration media to an external filter is basically just providing bacteria with another surface to colonize. I recently set up a larger tank and have a fairly large 15L stainless canister filter, and the Oase 850. The former is completely filled with lava rock, and the latter 5-6 of the baskets are filled with lava rock. It's the same rock you'd buy by the bag from your local garden center. I actually bought mine from Home Depot's garden section.

Is the Matrix more porous than regular old lava rock? Sure. But the bacteria that make up your biological filter only colonize based on your stocking levels. If you have 100 fish, the bacteria only grow to support the processing of the waste from 100 fish. If you add 10 more fish, more bacteria will grow in response.

I had a friend who had a packed 75 gallon aquarium with adult size African cichlids and he was only using an HOB alone. If memory serves it was a Marineland Emperor filter, the biggest one they make. It blew my mind when I saw the tank because at the time under gravel filters were the only way to go. His water quality was pristine.

Years ago when I had my last planted tank I was running a Rena Filstar canister with Eheim Substrat Pro which recommends replacement every 6 months. I sold that filter as is to a friend and he's still running it today, a decade later, with that same Substrat Pro.

In a nutshell what I'm saying is don't get too hung up on images taken with an electron microscope, or dubious claims from manufacturers, or people sponsored by manufacturers. The size of your biological filter is totally dependent on the amount of waste being processed. As long as you're maintaining your aquarium, and you have some sort of biological media, the type really doesn't matter.

If this topic were about chemical filtration media it would be a totally different discussion, but with bio media, you basically can use anything and it'll work.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Years ago when I had my last planted tank I was running a Rena Filstar canister with Eheim Substrat Pro which recommends replacement every 6 months. I sold that filter as is to a friend and he's still running it today, a decade later, with that same Substrat Pro.

Do they still recommend replacement? At some point, their formulation changed and the media started to last longer/broke down less easily. I've got it in most of my filters. Been using the same stuff for easily 15 years. It's my favorite (other than sponge/foam) because it easily fits into small, cheap HOBs. Bonus: it doesn't hurt when pieces of it fall to the floor, hitting your toes like a brick as you're moving around the tank room. (Sure, pumice is lighter and can be smaller but I have to wait til what I've got starts to fall apart.)

Way too many people get hung up on filter media, as you've explained quite well. It's why most of us just stick to whatever we've got - be it ceramic media, fancy Eheim stuff, sponges or pot scrubbers. It's even better if you can get what you like on sale.

 

[ddiomede]

Do they still recommend replacement? At some point, their formulation changed and the media started to last longer/broke down less easily. I've got it in most of my filters. Been using the same stuff for easily 15 years. It's my favorite (other than sponge/foam) because it easily fits into small, cheap HOBs. Bonus: it doesn't hurt when pieces of it fall to the floor, hitting your toes like a brick as you're moving around the tank room. (Sure, pumice is lighter and can be smaller but I have to wait til what I've got starts to fall apart.)

Way too many people get hung up on filter media, as you've explained quite well. It's why most of us just stick to whatever we've got - be it ceramic media, fancy Eheim stuff, sponges or pot scrubbers. It's even better if you can get what you like on sale.

Honestly I'm not sure. I remember it vividly when I bought it back in 2010-ish and laughed when I read on the package that I'd need to replace it every six months.

I believe the ADA bio rio does recommend replacement. I kind of thought Seachem also did, but I've never purchased it so I can't say for certain. Fluval Bio FX recommends replacing half of the media every 6 months (just checked the website).

I think the only reason to replace it is if it's basically completely disintegrating. If you're gentle with it when you rinse it, it should last a very long time. I asked my buddy who is still running my old media how it looks and he said it still looks the same. When he cleans it he basically just swishes the media baskets around to get rid of any detritus and then puts the baskets back into the canister.

I think this is one of the areas where if you want it, buy it because there's really no harm. My perspective changed over the years when I saw that the "rules" weren't set in stone.

I actually looked for pumice in bulk but couldn't find anything with a grain size that would be suitable. There's a lot out there in the bonsai world, but the grain sizes are far too small. Lava rock was about as close as I could get and still have media that was very porous.

At one time, and heck even recently I obsessed about how I should pack the media baskets on my Oase. Finally I just stopped thinking about it and filled one basket up with sponge and filter floss, then the rest with lava rock, leaving the smallest basket on top for chemical filtration media, like Purigen or carbon. It's definitely amusing thinking back to the under gravel filter days and comparing it to today. Back then this discussion wouldn't even be happening. If you wanted to run carbon, you'd get a whisper HOB and stuff the sleeve full of carbon lol.

I understand the perspective of the manufacturers. If you put some money into R&D, sourcing materials, manufacturing, creating labels that meet regulations in each country (Canada and Mexico have some very interesting label laws), packaging, etc., it doesn't make sense to sell a product basically one time.

 

[Kitsune]

Do they still recommend replacement?

They defaulted to writing "can be used multiple times, rinse carefully while cleaning"

 

[Bandit1200]

In my Fluval I still have whatever version of biomedia that came with it when I bought it like 15 years ago and it is still holding up fine. In my SunSun filter I bought 3/8" graded pumice online for pretty cheap, at least it was way cheaper than Seachem Matrix would have been. I still have a pretty good amount left over in the garage somewhere in case I need to fill another biomedia need. I can send a link to where I ordered it from if anyone needs it.

edit: It shows to have 1/8", 3/16" and 3/8" graded available.