Sump filtration media

[Daky]

Hi

I am building a 50 gallon barrel sump with a 50% trickle sistem and 50% submerged media and would like to know what media I should use where. I'm on a budget so my avaliable media is: Lapillo (a fine grade lava rock thing), expanded clay balls, pumice, zeolite, biochar and perlite plus a few sponges to space things out.

Any suggestions are appreciated

[Phillydubs]

I went simple with bio- balls ceramic rings and sponges... I also run a hydro sponge in my sump...

[atlantadiscus]

most important thing is keeping your bio media as free of any particulates as possible-generally achieved by placing multiple layers of some form of mechanical filtration{filer floss,foams,matting,etc} in the flow before the water gets to the bio media.

[Neptune]

simplest would be layers of foam over a bio-media. And even easier skip the trickle part.

[Jack L]

well seachem talks up their matrix, and since i now know its just pumice, i'd go with that.

and if you are on a budget, looking use of quilt batting, never found anything cheaper.

[Daky]

Thanks for the replies. I'll probably just buy everything and see what works best, but if anyone has experience with the above mentioned media please feel free to comment

[farebox]

I have 2 ltrs of Seachem Matrix bio media in my sump for a period of time and it's getting the job do.

[bluelagoon]

I know a guy who uses these srubbys.This is what came up on google.http://www.koiphen.com/forums/showth...-a-turtle-pond

[Neptune]

I know a guy who uses these srubbys.This is what came up on google.http://www.koiphen.com/forums/showth...-a-turtle-pond

I use the bigger bath ones. I have a whole chamber stuffed with them.

[Jack L]

i resisted sharing this... but i will

for ALLLL the things i've added to my sump. i have NOT seen any change in my water. once the tank is cycled, i just had nitrate. i have yet to find something to eat nitrate as advertised. all that stuff just ate my money.

i'm now trying water lettuce to see if that does something.

the only thing that seemed worth the $ was poret, because it reduced my maintenance. i clean that 6ish month apart, and got out of every few days sock changes.

but still have the same nitrate levels i've been having.

[bluelagoon]

This method will not get rid of nitrates.It just holds BB and has large surface area to do that.This is were the nitrates are formed and not reduced.WC's do that.

[Jack L]

some of the products I've bought claim to also make environment for bb that consume nitrate, i.e. matrix, but so far i have not seen a product deliver.

And as long as all i have is nitrate, then there is enough surface area for bb, follow me...

So, With an empty sump, without extra media, there was enough surface area between sump and tank for bb to convert all waste to nitrate

At least in my setup

[Daky]

Thanks for the replies, keep them coming. As for nitrates, my tank is on a drip sistem so i am not concerned about that, but i want to add a few more tanks to the sump and want to make sure it will handle them. Especially a grow out angel/discus tank

[bluelagoon]

some of the products I've bought claim to also make environment for bb that consume nitrate, i.e. matrix, but so far i have not seen a product deliver.

And as long as all i have is nitrate, then there is enough surface area for bb, follow me...

So, With an empty sump, without extra media, there was enough surface area between sump and tank for bb to convert all waste to nitrate

At least in my setup

I use Matrix in one of my tanks and I can assure you it does not do anything to rid any nitrates at all.But does convert ammonia to nitrites to nitrates.They is no BB to rid nitrates that's why we do WC's.

[Ryan925]

some of the products I've bought claim to also make environment for bb that consume nitrate, i.e. matrix, but so far i have not seen a product deliver.

And as long as all i have is nitrate, then there is enough surface area for bb, follow me...

So, With an empty sump, without extra media, there was enough surface area between sump and tank for bb to convert all waste to nitrate

At least in my setup

There are products, as you said, that claim to lower nitrate. The issue with these is they need to be in a very low flow area of your sump to grow the bb needed to eat up the nitrate. I am. In the process of building my sump and am going to create a chamber for this reason and see how it works

Aside from that I am also doing wet/dry with bio balls. 2 layers of poret will filter water in the drip tray before the emerged bio balls. After the bio balls will be fluidized k1. I will transferring my matrix and eheim substrat pro from my canister filter as well.