Jump to content

Biologic media


MrZ2u

Recommended Posts

Using the old pound per gallon guideline makes for too much rock in my Fusion Lagoon 25.  For that matter, 25 is kinda not accurate.  With just 80% of a 20lb bag of sand it takes not quite 20gal to fill...probably 17-18gal after rock in reality.  I have right at 25lbs in there and it is visually too much.  I have some room in the back with the pump but not that much.  I was looking at some of the ceramic media for canisters as they are very porous and by volume, even if their claims are half in reality, they are on 3x the surface area of natural rock.  I could put probably close to 2ltr in the back which would if the geometry is not failing me would let me pull out easy 10-15lbs or more from the display area.

Does anyone have any practical experience with any of the these three products...

https://www.eheim.com/en_GB/products/filter-media/biological/substratpro is a known quantity for me from the fresh water days.  I had two Eheim 2217s with 1ltr each in them and they kept a 200 overstocked African tank running smooth.  Logic says almost that much, hell, half that much in the back of this tank should do it alone for bio surface area.  This is what got me to thinking about this as a supplemental bio option. 

Two other options of interest are Fluval Biomax rings and Brightwell Bio Cubes.


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

did you add the lbs of sand too?  i have a large canister ( http://amzn.com/B004H36N66 ) w/ kent nitrate sponge.. kinda same concept? (i got the housing for like $20 on clearance eons ago).  my only complaint using this setup it that it WILL clog.. just the nature of the bacterial growth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The pound per gallon rule isn't always accurate. For example in my 20g I have 10- 13 pounds of rock. BUT, one of my rocks has tons more surface area than any other rock in there. It only weighs 3 pounds. It's a matter of surface area, not weight. Isaac also brings out a great point, sand. Sand provides a phenomenal amount of surface area. You may not need all 25 pounds of rock.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's all why I said guideline as opposed to rule.  The "rule" always seemed arbitrary to me since by volume a lighter rock always seems much more porous and therefore more capable of housing the bacteria and also why only two liters was able to keep up in a grossly overstocked 200 gallon.  Adding two socks with somewhere between 1-2ltrs total of one of these synthetic media types should on paper replace any live rock work load and I could only have what I find aesthetically necessary in the display.  I know it works in fresh, mostly curious if anyone has seen it work in practice in salt or knows that it doesnt/didnt and can account for why.  

I do not plan anything like the load I had before in this one.  Three, maybe four small fish and a cleaning crew in a system that will get weekly or biweekly 5 gallon water changes, that might have 18 gallons real water volume and has a skimmer as backup policy if a water change is missed for some reason.  Feels like a pretty light load unless there is something radically different about the nitrogen cycle in salt water of which I am not aware.  

For fun, this is what the underside of my 200 looked like :)

undertank_zpshfr1lsd5.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One pound per gallon was a guideline before modern filtration. The improvement in protein skimmers and the rise of reactors allow us to stock much more heavily than before and get better results. It also assumes you're using Fiji rock, which is denser and less porous than other rocks available today. If you check out some of the celebrity hobbyists tanks, like Randy Holmes-Farley, Sanjay and Jason Fox, you'll see a lot less rock than you would have ten years ago.

Canister filters are largely for freshwater because they clog and don't have a filtering capacity large enough for tanks above nano. You'll probably get the same amount of debris in a filter sock as you will in the canister. The difference is that a legion of filter socks will cost you $ and the canister will cost you $$$. Where a canister is good is when you don't have the room in your application to add a sump or just don't want to add a sump. Some people use Emperor 400 filters as a cheaper alternative to canisters. The cartridges are easier to change and it won't clog as easily. On the downside, HOB filters sit on the tank rim and create a water trickle sound. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...