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What filter media is best?

I had a 6000 gal koi pond. Filtered by 2 double showers with 100 kg of bacteria house media in each shower. The watwr was fed to the showers straight from the 2 bottom drains no pre filters the flow rate was around 11000 gals per hour over the showers. Ran it like this for around 3 years before moved house. The nitrates in the pond ran at near zero. The water was clear enough to see to the bottom of the pond 6ft deep.
Never had to clean the media once in the 3 years.
 
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dw1305 said:
As a long time cichlid keeper, I think if this discussion had been on a cichlid keeping forum things could have <"spiralled out of control by now">.
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I take it there are differing opinions on the cichlid forum :D, when I was doing my original research the posts that were coming up in google were all really favorable which is one of the main reason I went for it. My discus can be quite messy so I figured if the stuff works for larger cichlids it would work for my discus and so far the results have been great.
 
Hi all,
Nelson said:
Never thought of nuking them in the microwave though
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I've never tried this. I got it as a <"method from another forum">, and I've seen it mentioned a few times now so I assume it works OK.

We used to use sintered glass filters (I think these were borosilicate glass) a bit when we did the waste water work and when they were really gunky we used to autoclave them, so pressure cooking might work.
Daveslaney said:
Filtered by 2 double showers with 100 kg of bacteria house media in each shower. The watwr was fed to the showers straight from the 2 bottom drains no pre filters the flow rate was around 11000 gals per hour over the showers. Ran it like this for around 3 years before moved house. The nitrates in the pond ran at near zero. The water was clear enough to see to the bottom of the pond 6ft deep. Never had to clean the media once in the 3 years.
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Wet and dry trickle filters, like your shower filter, are the <"Rolls-Royce of microbiological filters">.

Because you have a shallow film of moving water they have a huge gas exchange area, and within the deeper media you are likely to get denitrication.

These filters will never become totally anaerobic, because they have access to atmospheric gases, allowing out-gassing of CO2 (and N2), and a continual supply of oxygen along the concentration gradient from the air into the water film.

Combine a trickle filter with plants and you have a system which is even better. These are called <"vertical flow constructed wetlands">

cheers Darrel
 
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dw1305 said:
Hi all, I've never used <"Biohome">, but I'm sure it is just as good as <"alfagrog, pumice, eheim "cocopops"> etc.

Having used it for a while I really like the Kalnes type K1 media (bought as generic "floating cell media"), partially because it is self cleaning. If someone else is paying I'll have "Substrat pro", but it really doesn't matter.

If you keep all the filter material aerobic it has the ability to deal with large bioloads, oxygen is really the key. If you have high flow through the filter the water remains oxygenated and you never get thick biofilms, or the type of zonation that "Manuel Arias" describes, develop.

If you have <"plants efficient nitrification is an asset">, so if you can find filter types described as "nitrate factories" that is an advantage.

The late <"Bob Marklew, Pleco breeder extraordinaire">, an engineer and extremely meticulous man was an alfagrog user, so I don't think there is much wrong with it.

cheers Darrel
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Sorry to derail this very interesting thread...Darrel if you'd like, I have some substrat pro unused in original bag if you'd like for spare floaters if you've any?
 
Well, after some more researching;
- Correct me if i am wrong but after reading this thread again i believe that both Manuel and Darrel are pointing out the danger of getting your canister without or too little oxygenated water.
- Correct me again if i am wrong; My plants are assimilating so hard that my tank looks like a bubble bath. So my conclusion is that it is almost impossible not getting enough oxygen in my canister.
- In a non planted tank this risk becomes higher.

I ended up with Sera Siporax 1L and Eheim Substrat Pro 1L.
My canister buildup wil be like;
Basket 1; Medium sponge with fine wool mat
Basket 2; Siporax
Basket 3; Siporax & Substrat
Basket 4; Substrat

Sera states to have 270 m2 of surface area with 1L and i chose those because of the 15mm sized rings which are less likely to mess up my flow.
Eheim states to have 450 m2 of surface area with 1L. This looks like a commonly known product from a renowned company which sells quality products that has proven themselves to be good.

I want to thank all of you for your useful information, unvarnished opinions and the chitchat :thumbup:

:clap::clap::clap:
 
Hi all,
Timon Vogelaar said:
Darrel are pointing out the danger of getting your canister without or too little oxygenated water
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Yes that is the principal worry for me.
Timon Vogelaar said:
My plants are assimilating so hard that my tank looks like a bubble bath. So my conclusion is that it is almost impossible not getting enough oxygen in my canister. - In a non planted tank this risk becomes higher.
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Much more of a risk if you don't have plants, but still a slight possibility in a planted tank, towards the end of the night (when plants are part of the bioload), if the filter becomes clogged and flow slows.
Timon Vogelaar said:
Basket 1; Medium sponge with fine wool mat
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That should be fine. I don't have any <"filter wool in the filter">, but I have a <"sponge pre-filter on the intake for mechanical filtration">.

cheers Darrel
 
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