Cheap Filter Media Or Alternatives

[VickiandKev]

I've had a look through past posts on here and have found the suggestion of plastic pot scourers layered, I suppose in lieu of the filter sponges, and have also found cut up drinking straws suggested too - this would be course mechanical filtration I would imagine?

I have 3 Eheim filters to kit out very quickly and cheaply as I'm getting my new 6ft tank on the weekend but will have to replace all the filter media as it was previously used for saltwater. I have some of the Fluval bio-balls (is that what they're called?) from my previous fully cycled external to distribute about to kick-start the biological filtration and have some filter wool also to put in for the last filtration layer.

I don't really fully get the order in which media should be put into the canister, but think it's coarse mechanical, then fine mechanical, then biological, then really fine mechanical (polyester wool), is that right?
And if so, are there cheap alternatives or cheap versions of any of the layers I've yet to fill.

I'm presuming the pot scourers will fill the coarse filtration, and I have wool for the super fine filtration.

Is it good practice to always have a filter carbon running somewhere? I always have had carbon in the filter except for when medicating the tank, but is it necessary?

Sorry for all the questions - any help would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to be stuck and have to go out and pay top money on the weekend so that my fish have some filtration!

 

[Mikaila31]

Filters usually go from coarse to fine in terms of mechanical. It is really all biological filtration too, the bacteria doesn't differ between the coarse-fine sponges and bio-balls it will colonize all of them. You could run a filter using only filter floss and it would work, though it would clog up faster.

But for cheap media you can get untreated pillow stuffing(filter wool). Plain old sponges might work, I believe you can usually get big ones in home improvement store. Just plain beige-yellow cellulose sponges. I've never used them though, so maybe someone else can chip in. They feel really similar to filter pads. Legos and K'nexs can be used to substitute bio-balls/ceramics if you have them laying around the house. With K'nexs I'd only really bother using the connector pieces not the sticks. A thin layer of rough porous rocks would work too... Lava/pumice like rocks would work best, but they also like to float so may be more difficult to work with. Pot scrubbers would work for a coarse media, I would go with the nylon ones.

No carbons not necessary, its a waste of money IMO. Activated carbon lasts about 3 days before it stops absorbing stuff from the water. So unless you were changing it that often it probably wasn't doing much. Once its neutralized its really just biological media as it will get colonized.

 

[OldMan47]

Plain old sponges do not work. You need open cell material for a filter and you need closed cell sponge for general cleaning tasks. This is a picture of some open celled sponge meant to be used in a filter. I think you can see how open the structure is.

Or look at this commercial sponge filter's cell structure, a bit harder to make out I'm afraid.

Another cheap filter media that works quite well is the plastic scrubbers. This is a few of them fitted into one of my Rena baskets.

Once you put the basket cover onto the basket, they don't look as strange.

 

[VickiandKev]

I bought some of the plastic pot scourers today - chuffed to bits at how much they cost me and hoping they'll last a fair while.

I'm also going to look in my LFS for some sheets of filter sponge for pond filters, to provide more mechanical filtration as these should last me.

Filter floss isn't overly expensive so I'm not worried about that.

I currently use ceramic rings after the filter sponges in my filter - is there any alternative that's cheaper? I heard the suggestion of cut up drinking straws but don't want to use anything that's not tried and tested.

Are normal pumice stones from wilkos okay? I was thinking I could buy some cheap and then break them up and put them into net bags - would this work okay?

Good to know I don't have to have any carbon aspect to my filter though