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Is expensive bio media worth it?

Is expensive bio media worth it?

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Hi all,
CJM70 said:
does Siporax or Matrix or any other media discussed in this thread, affect the hardness of the water or the pH?
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No, it shouldn't. They need to be physically stable like sintered glass, plastic or ceramic.

You could potentially have pumice <"which would be alkaline (basic)">, but you never will find it in commercial workable deposits.

cheers Darrel
 
CJM70 said:
Some cracking info here. Another question… does Siporax or Matrix or any other media discussed in this thread, affect the hardness of the water or the pH?
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Nope. Mechanical and biological filter media should be inert. The ones discussed here are made of inert plastic, sintered glass, or ceramics. Only chemical media might affect the water values.
 
arcturus said:
Mechanical and biological filter media should be inert. The ones discussed here are made of inert plastic, sintered glass, or ceramics. Only chemical media might affect the water values.
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Hi @arcturus

I fully agree that all these media should be inert. But, I don't like leaving anything to chance. I would ask the manufacturers to confirm. Personally, I'd feel reasonably safe with sintered glass or ceramics - less so with 'inert' plastic.

JPC
 
Thanks all. Later on or tomorrow I will post an image of the media that came with a couple of filters I got with my tank. I may well give them a clean (they are dry) and use them or I may sell them with one of the filters and buy new stuff for my 350 Thermo.
 
jaypeecee said:
Hi @arcturus

I fully agree that all these media should be inert. But, I don't like leaving anything to chance. I would ask the manufacturers to confirm. Personally, I'd feel reasonably safe with sintered glass or ceramics - less so with 'inert' plastic.

JPC
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The plastic media discussed above were the Kaldness K1 and the Hel-X 13 KLL. Both are <made of High-density polyethylene (HDPE)>, which is widely used in the food industry and for drinking water pipes. I think you will find plastics with more dubious credentials in the rest of your aquarium equipment 😉
 
CJM70 said:
Thanks all. Later on or tomorrow I will post an image of the media that came with a couple of filters I got with my tank. I may well give them a clean (they are dry) and use them or I may sell them with one of the filters and buy new stuff for my 350 Thermo.
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The Oase BioMaster filters use the same type of media in different quantities. The 350 comes with 5x pre-filter sponges and has 5 trays: 1x Hel-X 13 biocarrier media, 3x blue sponges, and 1x orange sponge. A possible configuration you can try is 1x blue sponge in the bottom tray, Hel-X or other bio media in the three middle trays, 1x orange sponge in the top tray, plus a layer of filter floss over the orange sponge.

Another option is to let the pre-filter take care of the mechanical filtering and use the trays mostly for biological filtering. In this case, you would fill all trays with bio media and just leave the orange sponge and floss in the the top tray. But if you have an heavily planted tank the plants will be doing most of the biological filtering anyway, so it might be more sensible to add a bit more of mechanical filtration. You can also replace the pre-filter blue sponges (medium) with black sponges (fine) to increase the mechanical filtration capability, but the black sponges will clog faster...
 
arcturus said:
The Oase BioMaster filters use the same type of media in different quantities. The 350 comes with 5x pre-filter sponges and has 5 trays: 1x Hel-X 13 biocarrier media, 3x blue sponges, and 1x orange sponge. A possible configuration you can try is 1x blue sponge in the bottom tray, Hel-X or other bio media in the three middle trays, 1x orange sponge in the top tray, plus a layer of filter floss over the orange sponge.

Another option is to let the pre-filter take care of the mechanical filtering and use the trays mostly for biological filtering. In this case, you would fill all trays with bio media and just leave the orange sponge and floss in the the top tray. But if you have an heavily planted tank the plants will be doing most of the biological filtering anyway, so it might be more sensible to add a bit more of mechanical filtration. You can also replace the pre-filter blue sponges (medium) with black sponges (fine) to increase the mechanical filtration capability, but the black sponges will clog faster...
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Mine came with the orange sponges in pre filter and no plastic media but all other sponges as it was second hand (but immaculate and excellent deal). Will prob go with something like what you said in your first paragraph.
 
jaypeecee said:
Hi @arcturus

You may well be right. What did you have in mind? I'm intrigued.

JPC
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Most of the equipment used in a aquarium is (unfortunately) made of plastics, including sponges, filters, reactors, pipes, pipe fittings, valves and so on. The "external" equipment is also mostly plastics, including the bottles used to store ferts and other liquids, buckets and materials for water changes, submersible water pumps. Are all these bits and pieces actually made of food grade plastics? For example, you should find the "3" <resin identification code> in any piece of PVC. But you might have no further information about the material. However, the PVC identification code includes not only the food grade PVC-U without any plasticizers, but also PVC loaded with plasticizers and additives such as phthalates, BPA. So, if you raise questions about the HDPE used in media such as Hel-X you are opening a Pandora box...
 
Hi all,
jaypeecee said:
Some while ago here on UKAPS, we discussed Seachem Renew, which is made from pumice.
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There is a <"linked thread"> that explains why you only get commercially exploitable deposits of pumice in very specific circumstances.
dw1305 said:
There are <"pumices with lots of different chemical composition">, it depends upon the geology of the volcano they were ejected from.

However I would be surprised if any commercially exploited sources of pumice aren't derived from rhyolite (you only get huge volcanic explosions from silica rich magma), and you only get commercially exploitable deposits of pumice from huge explosions where the pumice has ended up in a lake or sea (on land large deposits will form welded Tuffs under their own weight).
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jaypeecee said:
Personally, I'd feel reasonably safe with sintered glass or ceramics - less so with 'inert' plastic.
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arcturus said:
The plastic media discussed above were the Kaldness K1 and the Hel-X 13 KLL. Both are <made of High-density polyethylene (HDPE)>, which is widely used in the food industry and for drinking water pipes.
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They are pretty physically stable as well.

cheers Darrel
 
No, I don’t think so it’s worth it, I use a picture of Seachem matrix in Rock scanner app and found out this thing is actually pumice, the same thing I was using all of my filter. You can buy 10kg of pumice for about about $7 here.A4E53EA5-3C4C-4EFB-80E4-8B3F9281A16F.png
 
Hi all,
EchinodorusScape said:
I use a picture of Seachem matrix in Rock scanner app and found out this thing is actually pumice, the same thing I was using all of my filter.
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Yes, <"definitely pumice">. We have some <"threads about this">.

Seachem actually sell another pumice product as <"Seachem Renew">. I'd be willing to bet that both products are actually from the same source and if I was to have a punt on that source? I'd look at the west of the USA (Nevada to Oregon) and <"particularly Idaho">.
dw1305 said:
There are <"pumices with lots of different chemical composition">, it depends upon the geology of the volcano they were ejected from.

However I would be surprised if any commercially exploited sources of pumice aren't derived from rhyolite (you only get huge volcanic explosions from silica rich magma), and you only get commercially exploitable deposits of pumice from huge explosions where the pumice has ended up in a lake or sea (on land large deposits will form "Welded Tuffs" under their own weight).

You can re-use pumice, in fact you can treat pumice exactly like a sintered glass media, because they are basically the same thing. Are ADA's or Seachem's pumices better than horticultural pumice in use? I don't know, but I would be very surprised if they are.
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cheers Darrel
 
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So here are the media types I “inherited”.

The tubes are definitely Sera Siporax (I’ve had it many times before).

The multisized granules are meant to be Seachem matrix. Funny how in Seachem’s adverts it is always shown as a reasonably uniform size and not with lots of tiny granules. Also I have been through this and picked out a lot of stones which appeared to be basically pebbles.

The bioballs have a rough surface, not smooth. I think I have had it before but I don’t know what it is called.

Am I better off including these, Or some of these at least, in one of the filters I am going to sell, in order to add value? Or do you think that people tend to want to do their own thing with media?

Part of me wants to start afresh, but the other part of me does not want to waste money 😂😂😎.
 

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Can anyone identify the balls in this pic, or confirm if the multi sized stuff is matrix.?
 

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Hi all,
jaypeecee said:
Does this mean that Seachem Renew is unlikely to raise the pH of aquarium water?
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I'm pretty sure it won't.

It is only huge explosive volcanic eruptions that produce <"commercially exploitable deposits of Pumice"> and you can only get <"huge volcanic eruptions"> where you have silica rich, acidic lava. The pumice also needs to fall into a lake, other wise it welds itself, under its own weight, into "Welded Tuff".

wide-pumiceMine.jpg
....In the southeast corner of the State of Idaho, 23 miles northwest of Malad City, lies a vast reserve of white, pure pumice that is in demand all over the world. That demand is the result of two factors: the quality and brightness of the pumice, and the company that mines and refines it: Hess Pumice........The pumice deposit is located on the shoreline of an ancient lake known as Lake Bonneville...a vast, freshwater lake that once covered much of North America’s Great Basin region (most of Utah and parts of Idaho and Nevada). The Great Salt Lake is all that remains of Lake Bonneville.
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cheers Darrel
 
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