The Puffer Forum

Choices, choices! Eheim substrat pro, ehfilav, ehfisubstrat, ehfimech, dupla balls...and, yikes, how does one choose? (for Eheim 2213 canister bio-only).

Anyone use the Eheim pre-filter 400462 ?

Ceramic noodles (ehfimech) is a good long-term choice as it won't clog up over time like the sintered glass (substrat). Similarly bio-balls offer a good amount of surface area with lots of flow-through. I'm not familiar with the dupla balls but I use coralife bioballs and they're nice. For a 2213 I would aim for 1" or smaller bioballs.

I use BioMax in mine too.

PP - do you mean the BioMax ceramic rings by Hagen? Are these different from Eheim's ceramic "ehfimech" rings ?

Bred - The Coralife miniballs are 1". Do you use these alone ?

Any thoughts to the wisdom (or lack of...) combining 2 different types of biological media such as the ceramic rings and the miniballs ? Would you mix them together or layer them ?

ChesapeakeSwellfish wrote: Any thoughts to the wisdom (or lack of...) combining 2 different types of biological media such as the ceramic rings and the miniballs ? Would you mix them together or layer them ?

It's all the same to the bacteria. I see no reason why you shouldn't combine them. I also don't see any reason why mixing them would be advantageous, though. Except maybe for the fact that bioballs have a larger surface area than ceramic rings.

I use the 1.5" bioballs in my 2215, sandwiched between coarse media and and fine media. (I'm not prefiltering my canister currently.)

I also use the ceramic rings in my canister. It has three compartments and the other two have carbon. I initially put the carbon in to polish up the water but then just left it in there as a bacteria grower. That was 4 months ago.

MP

I use either (first choice) Dupla Minikaskade balls or (second choice) Eheim Ehfimech for my biomedium. I do not mix the two. The Dupla balls are superbly self cleaning (by far the best I tested), the Ehfimech is less so. Both are eternal for all practical purposes.

Do not use Ehfisubstrat for bio-only by my technique. With Ehfisubstrat you must use the fine white pad downstream of the Ehfisubstrat or your impeller housing is at risk. If the pad is used, it will block blow-through of both the fines from Ehfisubstrat (very good for the canister) and the dead biofilms from the biomedia along with any particulates making it through the prefilter (both bad - requires routine maintenance and serves as a local heterotrophic bacteria feeding ground for digestion of those things, contrary to the purpose of bio-only IMHO).

HTH

RTR, you're really very bright, I love reading your posts! (sorry off topic )

I use eheims 'ceramic noodles' as there being reffered to these days.

Eheim's Ehfimech = ceramic "noodles", originally intended as a coarse mechanical filter medium plus water distribution medium within the canister. I don't think that the company yet recognizes their value as biomedia, or does not want it to compete with their other biomedia.

lisalisa - too many years of training and guiding folks in biotech. I turned into a teacher of sorts. But I do hope the posts help.

RTR wrote: lisalisa - too many years of training and guiding folks in biotech. I turned into a teacher of sorts. But I do hope the posts help.

They do! Much appreciated.