canister filter bio media

[corbind]

As a thirty-somethin' guy I have better things to do than to stress about so many different things I know nothing or very little about. I'm losing hair trying to read so much lately.

Ok, so if you have say a 7 liter canister filter and want to grow huge coloinies of good bacteria what media would you use? Those plastic bio balls? Plastic bio stars? Ceramic circles? Sintered (yea, like I know what that means--lol) glass? I came across this product earlier and it sound good from the marketing:

http/www.seachem.com/seachemframeset.html

http/www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp...dproduct=SC3175

So what do the real aquarists use? I'd hate to buy the totally wrong product and waste $50 on bio balls I won't use (I think someone said those are really too big for canisters and better for auxiliary tanks).

Please let me know what you think and thanks for responding!

 

[Lithril]

The best media out at the moment for surface area (hence colony size) is Eheim Substrat, looks like little white rocks but has a surface area of 450 Square meters of surface area per litre of media, amazing stuff and never really needs replacing. My canister filter has a course sponge then the substrat then another course sponge as a seperater, then floss then another sponge to hold it all in.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Any smaller sized substrate will work equally well - lots of brands that all do the same job. Bio-balls are not recommended in canisters, they are too big and very limited in how many you can use.

In my canisters I use nothing but filter floss - super cheap to replace, hold as much bacteria as any media, and doubles ans an incredible mechanical media too.

 

[jumpman]

In my Eheims I use FIlter floss and large gravel all the way through. Wash half the gravel in tank water every few weeks and your laughing!

 

[Cian McLiam]

Have to agree with Lithril, the Eheim Substrat is the canaries ankles!
I use it in my Juwel filter too, instead of the carbon sponge.

Ken

 

[corbind]

Well, guess I'll stuff the Eheim 2028 with lots of EHFISUBSTRATE. The capacity of the filter is 7L. I believe they sell the stuff in 1 liter or 4 liter packages. Do you think I could use 4 liters?