where do you get your Poret foam from?There are several things I consider when deciding which media is "best". They all do the same thing, i.e. provide real estate that allows a bacterial colony to grow and live on. That's it; that's their sole function.
Some folks think the best biomedia has the greatest surface area per unit volume. But the actual surface area you will need to support enough bacteria is surprisingly small; I'd wager that about 95% of us reading this have far, far more media than absolutely required for our bioloads. And that's all you're gonna get; your tank will support as many bacteria as the ammonia production of your livestock permits. More biomedia...more real estate...does not translate to more bacteria, or better filtration. It just means that the colony will be more thinly distributed over the larger area, making it somewhat easier and more convenient to remove portions of it to start up new tanks without waiting for cycling from scratch.
Cost is near and dear to my heart; I want to get what I pay for and I don't want to pay for more than I get. Boutique high-tech biomedia grows exactly the same bacteria as cheap DIY stuff.
I want stuff that is easy to rinse clean, so that I can quickly remove any sludge or other build-up that accumulates over time. Hand in hand with this is light weight; some media that are cheap and work well also weigh a ton; other types are featherweight by comparison.
K1 is a special case, whose marketing people have sold the idea that by tumbling it you are constantly dislodging and knocking off old decrepit worn-out bacteria, allowing only the trim healthy fighting-weight bacteria to remain. Guess what? Fat old bacteria still eat ammonia. In reality, K1 has a single benefit: it looks cool as it tumbles and gyrates. If you are the type of aquarist who enjoys looking at your filter as much as looking at your fish, this is definitely your biomedium. It's the ultimate in virtue-signalling filtration media; "I love my fish so much...look how much money I spend on media!"
Pumice or lava rock is sort of a cheap version of ceramic rings or Matrix. All of them are porous and riddled with internal spaces that increase surface area. All of them will quickly have these passages and voids clogged by biofilm, negating this advantage almost entirely...but, again, you don't need anywhere near as much biomedium surface area as many sources lead you to believe, so these will continue to work just fine long after they have morphed into essentially a handful of pebbles or marbles. All can be easily rinsed off but are very heavy and inconvenient to move, and simple rinsing will not clean out all those nooks and crannies. Some folks claim that there will be anaerobic bacteria living inside the media after it clogs up which will scarf up nitrates. Hmmm...maybe...but then the anaerobic filtration gurus all state they need to "feed" their little darlings with some source of carbon, such as vodka, since the anaerobes are using the nitrates as a source of oxygen rather than nourishment, and still require some outside source of food. If that's the case...how do anaerobes living within clogged chunks of Matrix do their job? Answers to this puzzle gratefully accepted if they come from people who don't work for the manufacturers and if they also haven't bought the stuff already and need to justify the expense.
In case it hasn't become obvious by now...the "best" is a concept that is largely or completely subjective. Everybody places different emphasis on different parts of the equation. Personally, I have two "bests". The first is Poret foam, used in sponge filters or as layers in traditional sumps or other filters. This stuff lasts virtually forever, and functions as a terrific medium for either mechanical or biological filtration. As a mech medium, it can go long periods of time without clogging, so if that's the mindset that turns your crank you can stretch out the time between cleanings a bit longer. As a biomedium, it as a large amount of surface area and can be easily rinsed off to remove sludge and other clogging material without destroying all the bacteria. I've had slabs and chunks of Poret that were rinsed off many hundreds of times and remained biologically active and effective for well over a decade, and could still have continued on for far longer if required. The stuff is terrific; sadly, it's also very heavy and sloppy to handle when wet, so good mechanical prefiltration makes life easier and more pleasant when using it. It's also not cheap...but, in this case at least, you do get what you pay for.
My other choice for biomedium greatness is...plastic shotgun shell wads, sold for use in home reloading of shotshell ammunition. They look sort of like giant K1 pellets, with a surprisingly convoluted shape that increases their surface area significantly. I use them in DIY trickle filters, with a slab or two of Poret at the top to act as mechanical prefiltration media (and often changed out and rinsed daily). The shotgun wads are contained in mesh bags for ease of handling. When it is desired to rinse off the sludge, you grab the bag, pull it out of the filter, let the water drain off (takes about 5 seconds, tops) and the bag now weighs a few ounces per cubic foot; very easy to carry to the slop sink or the back yard for a quick hose-down. Like Poret...these things last forever, never break down, never lose any efficiency. They are so cheap it's scary; I have about 8 cubic feet of it in one trickle tower, total cost maybe $12...and that's twelve Canuckistani dollars, usually worth essentially nothing.
These two types of media, Poret and Remington, have been working like gangbusters for me for probably 30 years. I've occasionally bought more as my needs expanded; I have never had to replace any or had any of it wear out or otherwise fail. That....is the "best".
I'm in Canada, so not sure how useful this info is to you, but The aFISHionados in East St. Paul, just north of Winnipeg, stocks Poret foam.
Cichlaholic.com - Contact Spencer Jack
Contact Spencer Jack and The aFISHionados
www.cichlaholic.com
