[jschwab45212]

I have a magnavore WD-125 Wet/Dry filter on my new 120 gallon Mbuna tank. It has a 15 liter bio-chamber which I filled with bio-bals I had laying around from a long time ago. I was doing some research and saw that Seachem Matrix bio media has like a huge ammount of surface area and would be much better to use as a bio media. Question is do I need it? How can I tell if 15 liters of bio balls will be sufficient to handle the bio-load I put on the tank. It is going to be pretty heavily stocked, around 25-30 cichlids, and 10 catfish. According to Seachem 1 Liter of martix equals 17 liters of bio-balls, and I should only need 1.5 liters of Matrix for my size tank. Also says using the pond matrix (larger chunks) is better for drip style wet/dry filters.

I was thinking of buying a 4L container of the pond martix and using that on the bottom of the chamber area, then getting 4L of the regular smaller matrix and putting that on top of the larger stuff.

Is this overkill? Am I paranoid and the bio-balls will be fine? Help!

 

[prov356]

Question is do I need it?

No, you don't need it, the bioballs will be great. I use one gallon of bioballs per 30 gallons of tank water. 15 liters of biomedia is just right. Seachem just wants your money. They'll say what they have to. You've got biomedia to burn. Small biomedia (if that's what they're steering you toward) is awful for wet/dry filters because they can clog. I've got bioballs in my 180 that I put there 4 years ago and have never rinsed. Heavily stocked with tanganyikans. Four more systems running with bioballs from about 18 months ago. Heavily stocked. They work great. You'll never have a problem with biofiltration.

The 180

Fish room, 4 racks ~180 gallons each.

Seachem wants you to be paranoid and bring your $$ to their table. You won't gain anything by switching it up, and if it clogs up, you'll lose.

 

[jschwab45212]

cool thanks for the chill down. I was about to drop an un necessary 100 bucks on media that I can now put towards my fish

 

[713J]

Prov356 - who made your filters? All the major manufacturers have the bio chamber to low so you loose the extra water capacity of the sump itself. That design is one of the smartest I've seen and actually makes the filter really useful. v :thumb:

 

[prov356]

Thanks, I designed and made them all and for the reasons you gave. I wasn't happy with the commercial ones that I saw.

 

[fubu56]

What type of bio balls do you recommend and would they be okay in a large canister ?
Lee

 

[prov356]

Use small ones in a canister. You can find them referred to as 'nano balls'. Lots of sources come up when you Google it. Otherwise, for the wet/dry's, just buy the cheapest that you can find. The only ones I steer away from are the ones that have some sort of carbon insert in them. Very gimmicky and a bad idea. Just get the solid plastic ones. Be aware that some float. Usually not a problem as most are used in a wet/dry. I used the nano's in a Rena XP4 when I had it. They worked great.