Hydroton as a Filter Media?

[Dan F]

Anyone ever tried "Hydroton". It is an expanded clay hydroponics growing medium. It claims to be Ph neutral. It is relatively cheap and lightweight, too.

I noticed a photo of an outdoors setup on another thread, they were using it in an "aquaponics" system.

 

[mrgrackle]

hydroton is nice, but expensive. To use it as a filter you have to have a lot of it and you also have to have plants planted in it to take up the nutrients that the bacteria living in the hydroton break down from fish waste. the hydroton has a lot of surface area for bacteria to grow on and it's so nice how light it is. Another thing you'd want is to have the water level in the hydroton raising and lowering so it gets alternatly exposed to fish water/air.

 

[LawOne]

It's not true that you need to put plants into a system using hydroton. The bacterial conversion of ammonia and nitrite would be the same as any other filter media. I believe this would be an excellent filter media (see www.backyardaquaponics.com forum) as this is what it is essentially doing in a hydroponic situation anyway.
Also, it is unnecessary to have an ebb and flow system (fill and drain). Essentially you are looking at the porous nature of the media and its ability to cultivate beneficial bacteria. Like any other media you could use it in wet/dry, canister, or flow thru type filter systems.
Plus the stuff has got to be cheaper than bakki shower media, biohome, or any other ceramic ring type filter. This media is used on a large scale in hydroponic grow beds and from what I could see on google you can buy it in bulk for about a dollar a liter.

 

[John Rambo]

I have been using these pellets in my fluval 405s and fx5 in place of ceramic rings and some filter pads. They have less surface area than the rings, but they are made of similar material ( porous ) never break down, and will not slow water flow. They are super cheap. I bought a big giant rice sack sized bag of this stuff and it was insignificant compared to the price of those ceramic rings one buys in the pet store.

 

[bykerdellic]

i use it and grow peace lillys in it, there great for a veg filter, very greedy and dont mind wet roots(pretty essential)
£15 for 40 ltrs in most hydroshops

 

[Bawb2u]

When unbroken Hydroton has a non-porous surface due to the baking process. Broken Hydroton works very well though.

 

[bykerdellic]

oh and some of it floats....bubble bead filter???

 

[Hawaiianfishkee]

go you need to have the water flow stop like with a timer or something or can u have a continous flow of water through the gravel...

 

[greenterra]

I have not used Hydroton but I assume it is similar to Aquaclay. I have been using Aquaclay mixed with Seachem Matrix for years in my filters. The 4-10mm is great.
Aquaclay