BioHome Media noodles, discussion

[Clint Jorgensen]

Hi all, im newly getting back into marines again after about 15 years and am starting to collect bits and pieces in preparation..  however in the mean time my girlfriend is also setting up her first tank however its freshwater, which is also a first for me lol..  and ive taken it upon myself to learn the best filtration techniques for fresh water aquariums in the interum. 

 

Which brings me to this...

 

 

Essentially, its sintered glass particles IE sand forged together thru heat and pressure creating a extremely porous material, allowing aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to thrive.  Now these are used in canister filters in freshwater quite well after the mechanical filtration process allowing clean filtered water to pass thru these noodles depositing ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and converting them into soluble nitrogen which is evaporated out essentially purifying the water of ammonia which is the ultimate goal.  However this type of media fetches a real premium, around $50/kg aussie dollar delivered to my door and i would expect to require around 15kgs of it for my system going on what ive seen is used in setups that are constructed of this media..  which is not within my budget nor do i like spending money lol.

 

Now upon researching this i am thinking isnt pumice stone exactly the same thing??  naturally formed and freely available?  i literally have pumice by the truckloads littering the shoreline at certain times of the year and im thinking i might go grab some and use in this same process.   I understand that most reefers use crushed corals and live rock in the same manner but that is hard to come by in my area and also expensive.   Im picturing a tall cylindrical funnel type container stacked high with this stone and water trickling down thru it as a final stage of filtration before the main pump.  Im also aware that in marines we dont want the water filtered to the Nth degree as a lot of other organisms are wanted to return back to the tank aswell..  so only part of the cycle would pass thru this filter and reduce ammonia in part exactly the same way protein skimmers and refugiums only collect what they can each time round...  so if i completely filter even 5% of the water each pass then eventually i will filter the lot while still allowing all other beneficial organisms to remain in cycle.

 

I am blessed with space for my project so im all for trialing out things and seeing what works and what is a waste of time...  so eventually when i get up and running, by the end of the year is the goal, i will be experimenting with this and i expect to see some real benefits :)

 

Please feel free to add knowledge to this discussion  :)

[Clint Jorgensen]

Im guessing not....... thanks anyways

[Aelvion]

I'd be interested in hearing back on your findings...

 

I think as long as you keep it clean with good flow it should harbor beneficial bacteria (both aerobic and anaerobic) the same as liverock would.

 

I use a canister on one of my mixed reefs, an Oase Biomaster thermo. I use 60ppi sponges on its prefilter chamber. These sponges are equivalent to approx 250 micron filter pads. I rinse them weekly and replace them monthly. the inside of the canister stays free of detritus where I have about 1L of seachem matrix (pumice). This allows me to have a minimalist scape in my tank. 

 

IMO, as long as the media is kept clean and has deep enough pores, be it liverock, sintered glass, pumice, etc, it will complete your nitrogen cycle just the same.

[Clint Jorgensen]

On 6/15/2019 at 5:11 AM, Aelvion said:

I'd be interested in hearing back on your findings...

 

I think as long as you keep it clean with good flow it should harbor beneficial bacteria (both aerobic and anaerobic) the same as liverock would.

 

I use a canister on one of my mixed reefs, an Oase Biomaster thermo. I use 60ppi sponges on its prefilter chamber. These sponges are equivalent to approx 250 micron filter pads. I rinse them weekly and replace them monthly. the inside of the canister stays free of detritus where I have about 1L of seachem matrix (pumice). This allows me to have a minimalist scape in my tank. 

 

IMO, as long as the media is kept clean and has deep enough pores, be it liverock, sintered glass, pumice, etc, it will complete your nitrogen cycle just the same.

Thanks for ur input, i agree with you i cannot see why this would not achieve the desired results.  

I will report back when i have tested this out.  Thanks.