Biomedia suggestions, for a generally unserviceable filter…

On one of my built in 45 gallons, I have 2 Tidal 75’s one is a real reach for me to get to, to get the filter basket out… I’m thinking about just using it almost like a wave maker, as I like the water circulation, and aeration it provides… I’d like to keep some sort of bio media in it, but not something that would require servicing as often as the sponge, or even the mesh bag the current media requires…
In my Tilapia farming tanks, I use lava rocks, the size they used to put in gas grills ( approximately an inch ) that seems to work well, in the over crowded grow out tanks… back when I was in tanks 25 - 30 years ago, sump filters were just getting started, and before all the extruded weird shapes of plastic, or ceramic were available, they were using wiffle golf balls… I know there are better / newer shapes, but I’m not sure there is anything that would take longer to plug up completely… I’ve found I can still buy wiffle golf balls by the 100… any better suggestions than course lava rocks, or wiffle balls for something to move the actual maintenance out as far as possible??? I do have a 2nd Tidal filter on this tank, I modified, and actually run double sponges, so I don’t need this one to actually filter…

My 250 is set up for a sump, and I’ll be modifying that… thinking about using the baffled area as an aeration chamber, by plugging the holes in the bottom, and drilling some holes in the baffled chamber on the lower inner wall, and at the top, and filling it with a similar media, and several air stones ( that’s why I looked at the 100 wiffle ball’s in the 1st place )

The truth is I know nothing at all whatsoever about those types of filters but I think I’d stay away from the plastic stuff and stay with ceramic and rock . One of these days we’re going to find out that plastic isn’t the harmless thing we think it is .

I would use 30 ppi foam. Without completely filling the compartment. let the water flow over it so it can't clog.

I know this site has not always good answers for fish keeping, but for test like these, I think they are reliable enough.

aquariumscience.org / Filter Media

my concern, lets use 1 year as a service interval ( I know that's a long time ) but anything that blinds in that time, just becomes a brick... so I could put a brick in there, & have BB on the brick's surface, but as soon as anything porous blinds over, any BB in the center dies, without water flow... so now, I add lava rock, the porous surface colonizes quickly, but blinds over, to be equal to the same amount of granite stones, and even further down the road, has the potential to become no better than the brick... however the shape of the wiffle ball, has inner and outer surfaces, it takes a lot of mulm to blind completely the larger holes in the wiffle ball, and fill them solid... as mentioned I already, have another filter, that I service regularly, with 2 layers of coarse foam... now, in a year, is whatever media I use, going to have enough space / flow, to not overflow the filter housing ( yes, the Tidal filters, are capable of that, & I've personally witnessed it, with my Tilapia farm fish )... since I'm not really looking for any actual particle filtration from this filter,. only water movement, and aeration, on the other end of the tank, that I can't easily service... this becomes basically a wave maker... if empty, and that would be OK... but it could be more, with something with at least a minimal surface for BB growth in the filter housing...

and just as an FYI... ( why not just move the filter??? )... I want water movement on that side of the tank, and on nearly every tank, I use the HOB filters to friction hold the backgrounds in place, and then I backlight them... being built into the wall 20-25 years ago, I can't service that side of the tank, it took some figuring to get the background there, & slide the filter into place...

just for example, I submit this picture... there are 26 holes in each ball ( of coarse these could be drilled twice the size, if just used as a filter media, and not getting whacked by golf clubs, if it was found they were completely plugging, between service...




as far as "plastic" I get it, but the filter is completely plastic... it's a pretty hard compound to eliminate completely from an aquarium

Magnum Man said:

just for example, I submit this picture... there are 26 holes in each ball ( of coarse these could be drilled twice the size, if just used as a filter media, and not getting whacked by golf clubs, if it was found they were completely plugging, between service...

View attachment 355964


as far as "plastic" I get it, but the filter is completely plastic... it's a pretty hard compound to eliminate completely from an aquarium

Click to expand...

Wow ! That’s really some balls Man .

How about egg crate or similar plastic grid. You could sandwich a few pieces together to fill the space you’ve got. Maybe tie the different pieces together with cable ties so the holes line up. I wouldn’t think it would clog that way.

Japanese filter media. You can get it on Amazon.

It will clog to a point, but the filtration it offers is great. Biofiltration, I mean. I use it in all filters, even my air driven box ones.

It's rigid, hard to manipulate recycled plastic fibres. You can cut it to size, though it puts up a fight.

I rinse mine out every few months, but it would still have a flow through at 10-12 months. If the filter has no sources of light, it would be fine. I get a little algae in some of my HOBs, and that affects the surface of it.

I bought a big sheet and cut it to what I need 21 years ago, and it's still doing the job admirably. I suspect that's why it isn't in stores, as they prefer things that need constant replacement/repurchase.

I looked up Japanese filter media on Amazon… In with it, was this media… thoughts???

This is a 6 pack of 12 X 12 X 2 inch thick pieces

This was actually listed as “premium” Japanese media…

So next thought, the 1st one I looked at was only 1 inch thick, the premium, listed above in this post, is 1.5 inches thick… the one in my previous post was 2 inches thick… if building a block the size of the filter section, wouldn’t it be better, as far as future cleaning, to use the thinner sheets, and for example have a block made of 4 - 1 inch pieces, rather than 2 - 2 inches thick pieces, or 1 - 4 inch thick piece, as far as being able to thoroughly clean the media to it’s center, at service time???

BTW, the Tidal filters I’m using are black opaque plastic, so if I keep the cover on the filter, it would reduce the algae growth, over some other filters with translucent plastic…

I've used the blue version, but the green looks similar.

It's funny - since I got stuck with the hated windows 11, even though my location is Canada it will only link to US Amazon, which doesn't sell to me. I have to type in the Canadian address every time. You guys have more sellers and more options, with ten times our population. But I get the "right" type by entering Japanese filter media. I'd go with thinner sheets, to layer it up but also because cutting it is a workout for the average human wrist. Why suffer needlessly?

I have 2 inch media, and the muscle between my thumb and first finger is ripped. I could win a hand model bodybuilding competition.