# What is the best biological filter media for a Canister filter?



## Madfish (Sep 9, 2007)

I like the Rena bio stars. They seem to be working with my tank so I like them because my tank has not died off.


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

I like Eheim Efhisubstrat Pro


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

http://www.petmountain.com/product/bio-media/512391/seachem-matrix.html
http://www.petmountain.com/product/media-bags/506719/6-x-10-800m-8011-.html

for an XP1 .5 liter is all you'll need.
also get an 800micron bag for it.

careful not to get
matrix pond media
or matrix carbon.
Seachem idiots :icon_roll


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## FacePlanted (Jul 27, 2007)

I bought a bag of red lava rocks for use in a gas grill from walmart. It cost like 2-3 bux for a 5? lb. bag. I broke up a handful of rocks with a hammer and crushed them down to pea size. It took some patience, but they work great for biomedia for me. And I have a huge amount for cheap. 

I also like the pumice/sintered glass rocks like seachem's matrix and eheim's efhisubstrat. Eheim even makes efhilav that I think is exactly the same thing I made with my hammer. They are natural and have a huge surface area and tons of different sized pores through out the rock/nugget/piece of biomedia.


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

Lava rock is "decent" media At best. Far less surface area than you would think.


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## crazy loaches (Sep 29, 2006)

The best IMO would be Eheim Substrat Pro since its got good surface area and are perfectly round (hence their nickname cocoa puffs) providing maximum water flow with least resistance. Pricey though. My best bang for the buck vote is for Seachem Matrix for a canister. Or if your filter is large enough then potscrubbers are probably the most economical.


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## strizzi16 (Nov 13, 2007)

Hey great thread..I was wondering the same exact thing, I just got a Fluval 305 and a rena xp2.
Can't wait to see what people say!!


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## Rod Hay (Feb 11, 2006)

XP1 has only one media basket; so, personally I would completely skip anything except for the sponges: two - coarse w/ 20ppi & two - fine w 30pores per inch (assuming it's a heavily planted tank).

In a heavily planted tank your plants and the large mass of substrate will function as your bio-filter. Use the full volume of that basket for mechanical filtration. IMHO


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## Left C (Nov 15, 2003)

I bought Eheim Efhisubstrat Pro for my xP2. It's also what's used in my Eheim 2028.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Rod Hay said:


> XP1 has only one media basket; so, personally I would completely skip anything except for the sponges: two - coarse w/ 20ppi & two - fine w 30pores per inch (assuming it's a heavily planted tank).
> 
> In a heavily planted tank your plants and the large mass of substrate will function as your bio-filter. Use the full volume of that basket for mechanical filtration. IMHO


Plus, sponges are excellent for biological filtration as well. Huge surface area.


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## mrbelvedere (Nov 15, 2005)

I always stuffed my filters with floss only. I rinse the stuff on the bottom, then discard the top stuff. Then I replace the bottom with new floss, and move the old stuff to the top. Worked well for me. Tank was healthy and spotless. 

You would be surprised just how much "dirt" is actually in an aquarium.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

The XP1 only needs the sponges but in my XP3 I use broken up "selected" pieces of lava rock. Some pieces of lava rock that I have seen through the years is almost solid in nature but many are as porous and see through as a sponge, especially broken into 3/4" - 1" sized pices. :thumbsup: 

Not to mention a heck of a lot cheaper for the same thing...my bacteria are not picky and have never complained... LOL


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

mrbelvedere, try using this filter pad material instead of floss.
it can be rinsed and reused for Months, and the fibers won't
detach and gum up your impeller, oh, and it's cheap as hell.
I used it in the last stage of my XP3 for some final polishing,
but you could layer it the whole filter through as water will
pass through it easy enough without getting clogged up.

http://www.petmountain.com/product/pads/504082/marineland-aquaria-rite-size-bonded-filter-pad.html


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

fshfanatic said:


> I like Eheim Efhisubstrat Pro



X2. I don't like any of the stars or balls that are made out of plastic or other synthetics. I can't see how they have enough surface area to really allow for good colonization.

Tommy


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## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

Sponges and lava rock here. Lava rock if picked through for the more porous pieces is far more than a "decent" medium if you ask me.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

Actually when you think about it anything you put in your filter can become a bacterial colony in time. If one person has 50 sq inches of surface area in the chamber and the other has 75, would it make or break the success of a healthy tank? 
The walls of the filter chamber, the filter tubes, the plants, the stone, the driftwood, the substrate and even the bubbling skeleton you sometimes see in tanks maintain bacterial colonies so as long as the tank is properly maintained with a steady regimen of water changes.

I'll stick with the cheap stuff and pretend it is helping... :icon_mrgr


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## crazy loaches (Sep 29, 2006)

Exactly ^ the bacteria colony only will match your bioload (its food source) regardless whether you have just enough media or a thousand cubic feet of it. The filter just provides a slightly better condition for it as well as ensuring more flow through the colony. And with various media chambers you can leave your bio alone while you clean mechanical, etc. 

Unfortunately with the XP1 you only have 1 chamber so I'd probably just use the sponges personally. For onlookers though I'd recommend just going the XP3 route if your looking for those filters, much more options for media and you can turn the flow down some too (I run one on a 20g without reducing flow other than an inline turbo twist UV) and they only cost a little more (or at least an XP2, the XP1 is just too limiting with only 1 chamber).


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## Rod Hay (Feb 11, 2006)

Here's a link giving a chart comparing the various bio-medias in their surface areas. Although it's saltwater, the available surface area is the same. 

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/filtration/l/aa071603.htm

I found this especially helpful when choosing media for an outdoor pond w/ goldfish.:fish:


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

that Ultra Bio-Media looks interesting.
it's a shame they don't sell it in smaller
quantities, otherwise I'd love to try it.


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## crazy loaches (Sep 29, 2006)

Yeah that link was the first I'd heard of it. I think they overestimated the cost of potscrubbers on the article though.


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## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

Rod Hay said:


> Here's a link giving a chart comparing the various bio-medias in their surface areas. Although it's saltwater, the available surface area is the same.
> 
> http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/filtration/l/aa071603.htm
> 
> I found this especially helpful when choosing media for an outdoor pond w/ goldfish.:fish:


I somehow find some of those findings questionable. 
How would 1/2" river gravel be rated at 150 when lava rock would be 16? Even if the lava rock was all 1/2" sized and leaning towards non-porous (Lacking holes that is) it would at worst be equal to river gravel it would seem? Flowrates would be a whole other chapter as well.


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## nvrmor2paradise (Nov 7, 2007)

OMG! Biowheels are bad for planted tanks?! And this is straight from the manufacture... I am so screwed! Why does it remove CO2? And oxidizing nitrates? What does that mean? I had always heard that biowheels were the best medium so when I decided to go canister, I went with the only one that I could find that had them. This is really starting to upset me. I need to get rid of my fish, and now my filter too. And all this for plants I don't even have!!!


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

nvrmor2paradise said:


> OMG! Biowheels are bad for planted tanks?! And this is straight from the manufacture... I am so screwed! Why does it remove CO2?



IMO biowheels have little or no impact. I have seen NO difference in growth in 2 different tanks that I switched from bio wheel filters to Ehiems. Here's a quote from a post I made a while back:

"I've been seeing a lot of posts about Biowheels causing CO2 loss lately and decided to take a logical look at all 3. IMO, all HOB's cause CO2 loss. I don't think it's an issue of Biowheels. The Biowheel itself doesn't hold a lot of H2O as it turns, so I don't think there's a lot of CO2 being exposed to the atmosphere. It's basically just "dipping" the Biowheel media into the return H2O to keep the bacteria damp. If the concern is the amount of agitation caused by the Biowheel on the tank's H2O surface, I don't see that either. If anything, the Biowheel usually causes a "softer" return of H2O to the tank, so the concept of increased agitation of the tank's H2O surface may be more or less a myth. In any event, if you run low enough H2O level you'll always have a lot of surface agitation, regardless of filter type.

The highest H2O/air contact in an HOB is due to the turbulance in the chamber between the pump outlet and the filter media, not at the Biowheel. On almost every HOB design I've looked at, this area is vented or open to the atmosphere. On filters that use foam for biological filtering there's even more H2O surface area exposed to the air to off gas the CO2. 
Just my $.02"

Tommy


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## Naja002 (Oct 12, 2005)

nvrmor2paradise said:


> OMG! Biowheels are bad for planted tanks?! And this is straight from the manufacture... I am so screwed! Why does it remove CO2? And oxidizing nitrates? What does that mean? I had always heard that biowheels were the best medium so when I decided to go canister, I went with the only one that I could find that had them. This is really starting to upset me. I need to get rid of my fish, and now my filter too. And all this for plants I don't even have!!!


OT--Have you tried feeding the barbs a lot more? If the Bio-wheel presents a problem--just use the 350 without the Bio-wheel. Great filter either way!--/OT


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## jrh (Sep 9, 2007)

spypet said:


> http://www.petmountain.com/product/bio-media/512391/seachem-matrix.html


Have you found the Matrix biomedia actually does anything for nitrates?


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## nvrmor2paradise (Nov 7, 2007)

Ninja, It doesn't matter how much I feed them. They enjoy tearing everything up even if they don't eat them. I can't even keep airlines or substrate cables down... 

LS6, What of the oxidizing nitrates?


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## tpl*co (Nov 4, 2006)

spypet said:


> that Ultra Bio-Media looks interesting.
> it's a shame they don't sell it in smaller
> quantities, otherwise I'd love to try it.


That looks like something you'd put tomato sauce on and have for dinner 

Another vote for eheim substrat pro


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

jrh said:


> Have you found the Matrix biomedia actually does anything for nitrates?


most definitely. when I first used the tubular fluval media my nitrates were
20-40ppm, soon after I added Matrix, I was averaging in the 5-10ppm range.
I rinse lose mulm off my Matrix every month as it gets filthy with new growth
at about triple the rate my tubular fluval media does in the same canister!


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## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

nvrmor2paradise said:


> LS6, What of the oxidizing nitrates?


?????? Google the Nitrogen Cycle. Basically ammonia becomes Nitrite becomes nitrate when you build up good colonies of areobic bacteria

There are only a couple ways to get rid of nitrates. they include (easiest to hardest IMO):
1) plants
2) water changes
3) nitrate absorbing filter material
4) Anaerobic bacteria -denitrifying filters 

You are going to add Nitrates anyway. 

BTW, biowheels are great in low-tech non-co2 tanks (I have an eclipse low tech). 

I also really like the Eheim Efhisubstrat Pro. I replaced the regular Efhisubstrat with the pro in my 2213. But is is costly, and as was said before plants make better biological media.


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## crazy loaches (Sep 29, 2006)

jrh said:


> Have you found the Matrix biomedia actually does anything for nitrates?


If you have a planted tank why is this even a concern? Seems like most of us dose nitrates on a regular basis... I use Matrix as a bio media as far as ammonia/nitrite are concerned (meanign it produces nitrates). If it does indeed remove nitrates that maybe a bad thing lol! I do have trouble maintaining nitrates so far all I know that might be the case. I use slightly more than EI levels (dose 3X a week 3/4 teaspoon KNO3 - but slightly heaped) and I have trouble maintaining even 10ppm.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

Yes , we dose our tanks to a level but anything that makes the level fluctuate one way or the other "uncontrollably" adds the ? to the dosing amounts. Tanks are all about control...when you lose that control you lose that goal. :wink: 

And yes I have lost that control many times trying new things or trying nothing at all.


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## dmbProducts (Oct 31, 2007)

*bio*

Eheim Efhisubstrat.


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## lilflippy (Oct 27, 2007)

I decided to go with the bio chem stars in my xp1 i only need 4 of them since it only a 20 gallon tank thanks for all the input


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

lilflippy said:


> I decided to go with the bio chem stars in my xp1 i only need 4 of them since it only a 20 gallon tank thanks for all the input


4 of them? You mean four bags or four stars?


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## lilflippy (Oct 27, 2007)

fshfanatic said:


> 4 of them? You mean four bags or four stars?


4 stars i have a 20 gallon on the instructions it say for evey four stars to 20 gallons


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

lilflippy said:


> 4 stars i have a 20 gallon on the instructions it say for evey four stars to 20 gallons


You are going with the bare minimum? I would just use all that would fit. But that is me.


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## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

fshfanatic said:


> You are going with the bare minimum? I would just use all that would fit. But that is me.


X2, more surface area for the bacteria to grow on is a good thing.


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## calihawker (Sep 18, 2006)

After reading this very informative thread I'm actually more unsure of what to load my filters with than I was before, so I've decided to try a little experiment hopefully with the help of some of you out there. I am running 2 xp3's and an xp4 on my 300 gallon planted discus tank. My plan now is to load one up with chem stars, one with lava rock and the other with floss. 
I can monitor growth of bacteria and see how easy it is to clean and maintain the different filters. Or maybe one can be strictly a sponge filter?

I'm getting ready for the first planting this week so any other suggestions would be great!!!

Steve


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

calihawker said:


> After reading this very informative thread I'm actually more unsure of what to load my filters with than I was before, so I've decided to try a little experiment hopefully with the help of some of you out there. I am running 2 xp3's and an xp4 on my 300 gallon planted discus tank. My plan now is to load one up with chem stars, one with lava rock and the other with floss.
> *I can monitor growth of bacteria and see how easy it is to clean and maintain the different filters. Or maybe one can be strictly a sponge filter?*
> 
> I'm getting ready for the first planting this week so any other suggestions would be great!!!
> ...


How are you going to monitor bacteria growth? I run a hob with nothing but sponges, works great with very little maint.


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

calihawker said:


> I am running 2 xp3's and an xp4 on my 300 gallon planted discus tank. My plan now is to load one up with chem stars, one with lava rock and the other with floss.


I'm astonished how you can read this thread and arrived at such a plan.
filling up a canister filter with either lava rock or floss would be pointless.
the proper conclusion to draw from this thread would be to use specialty
small pebble size porous media, and/or foam-sponge.


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## calihawker (Sep 18, 2006)

spypet said:


> I'm astonished how you can read this thread and arrived at such a plan.
> filling up a canister filter with either lava rock or floss would be pointless.
> the proper conclusion to draw from this thread would be to use specialty
> small pebble size porous media, and/or foam-sponge.



My conclusion from reading this thread is that everyone has an opinion (and strong ones at that) on what the best thing to use. I'm a little confused though. I thought that crushed lava rock is considered small pebble sized porous media?? What exactlly are you saying to use? The eheim ehfisubstrat?
Something else? I am using sponges in all the canisters by the way. Thanks for the response.


fshfanatic
I think just looking in and seeing whats going on in the canister should say a lot.

Steve


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

calihawker said:


> My conclusion from reading this thread is that everyone has an opinion (and strong ones at that) on what the best thing to use. I'm a little confused though. I thought that crushed lava rock is considered small pebble sized porous media?? What exactlly are you saying to use? The eheim ehfisubstrat?
> Something else? I am using sponges in all the canisters by the way. Thanks for the response.
> 
> 
> ...


Lava rock is "ok" at best. You want something that has very high surface area. I love efhisubstrat and efhisubstrat pro is even better. Or you could just filler up with course sponges and top off with a polishing pad.

So you are saying you can gauge bacteria activity just by looking into the canister? Damn, I wish I had eyesight that good...


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

lava rock is a great CHEAP media for a LARGE pond filter.
in a small filter, lava rock is too weak, it gets crushed
from handling and the surface pores ground to dust.

specialty media pebbles that mimic lava rock's pours,
are also tough enough to withstand handling without
losing their porosity and leaving dusty debris behind.

they also claim to have greater surface area with
microscopic pits and pours, but that could just be
marketing hype. the important thing is integrity.


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## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

It might be a dumb question but why would a specialty media want to mimic lava rock? Considering many are saying how poor lava rock is as a media.

I generally crushed my lava rock to begin with, rinsed well and never had any issues after that.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

spypet said:


> lava rock is too weak, it gets crushed
> from handling and the surface pores ground to dust.


Once you crush it, rinse it and load the basket, why would you ever have to handle it again? 

heh, I'll bet if Eheim sold lava rock under the name of _ProNatural Media Pebbles_ , it would be the new rave and a lot more expensive and the bacteria would be a lot more effective :hihi:


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## Angry the Clown (Sep 1, 2006)

Buck said:


> Once you crush it, rinse it and load the basket, why would you ever have to handle it again?
> 
> heh, I'll bet if Eheim sold lava rock under the name of _ProNatural Media Pebbles_ , it would be the new rave and a lot more expensive and the bacteria would be a lot more effective :hihi:


How about the name: EHFI LAV


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

Angry the Clown said:


> How about the name: EHFI LAV


Damn! Beat me too it.


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