YeW Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 I think weight wise gutter guard is your best bet... while it might have a slightly lower surface area - I'm not convinced we need as much as we provide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlyme Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 I have used scrunched up fishing line and perlite (seems many volcanic rocks make good media) with great success. My issue with many of these mock up media is the cleaning of them when they get dirty. I have come back to reticulated urethane foam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulinnerwest Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 I use foam for my bio media.. very course foam.. the surface area is huge.. when you think about it there is probably enough surface area in 12 square inches of foam as there is in hundreds of litres of bio balls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiona Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 When you think about it, lungs maximise their surface area by being somewhat like foam! Must be an efficient design! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted December 2, 2003 Share Posted December 2, 2003 Seachem pond matrix has the most surface area of any bio filter medium as far as i know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeW Posted December 2, 2003 Share Posted December 2, 2003 Hi Guys -I should clarify my other comments. As fishkeepers we seem obsessed with providing the absolute maximum area for colonisation.I ran a 6x2x2 for a year, (heavily stocked with large american cichlids) on a very large coarse sponge and a large 1kg or so - bag of fineish gravel as biomedia.Worked a treat. Ammonia and nitrite levels 0 after cycling.My point is I do not think we need to buy expensive media simply cause it has a larger area. There are plenty of cheap products that do the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OziOscar Posted December 2, 2003 Author Share Posted December 2, 2003 Hey YeW...That's my point exactly... I am trying to find out what people have used with success and that has the lowest investment. While real bioballs are sexy (in a fishkeeping kinda way), it's just a matter of providing adequate surface area of non-reactive material to provide positions for colonisation by the relevant organisms to give quality biological filtration. From what I have read so far in the replies from yourself and the other experienced members of this forum, it looks like scoria is the cheapest solution, giving the largest surface area and that guuter-guard runs a pretty close second in popularity. There are other solutions, some more exciting and more fulfilling than others and doubtless just as effective, but they are outside the scope of my project to make a cheap-*ss DIY filtration system which meets or exeeds the efficacy of store bought systems. The only thing that remains now is a source of a low cost spraybar - preferably rotating, but fixed may also suit the need... Perhaps I should make a new thread to talk about that?Still, my mind is not closed to hearing about more potential DIY biomedia ideas. I'm sure there are other low cost exotica out there which would serve the need well. Cheers - OziOscar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLACKBAR Posted December 2, 2003 Share Posted December 2, 2003 you dont need a rotating spray bar just get a tee piece and a few elbows and put two spray bars one on each side with a lot of holes drilled into them or put a single spray bar with a distribution tray( any piec of plastic that can cover your media with a lot of holes drilled into it the water wil come out of your spray onto the tray and then distribute itself all over your media the smaller the hole the larger the are that the water will reach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nissky Posted December 2, 2003 Share Posted December 2, 2003 Hmmm, or combination of scoria and gutter guard For the spray bar i use a 40mm pvc pipe (with end blocked off) running diagonallyacross rectangular trickle filter, with 3mm holes drilled at bottom and sides to spray across the top of the filter.Arrange holes to get the right spray pattern according to filter and water pressure,ie. i have more holes in the centre sides to spray out close to edges.This my total cost for setting up filtration running 2 4x2x2 tanks (700 litres);- 2 Heavy duty 60L, stackable plastic containers with lids $38- 4 rolls gutter guard $8- 3 kilo of bbq rock $15- Bulkhead fitting $20 (aquarium shop so expensive)- Homemade over flow (using 2 bottle plastic wine cooler ) free plus silicone- 20mm plastic hose 3 metres $15- foam and sponge $10- 40mm piping, and elbow pieces, glue $15 max- 5000 litre per hour pump $150 (actually only around 3000)= $271I guess it depends on how much time and ingenuity you have, but i think my filtration is just as good if not better then any commercial product, and being so overkill, means i shouldnt need to clean it as often... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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