DIY fine filter pad substiutes?

[yehoshua]

Has anyone personal experience using no-name floss, etc. instead of the commercial fine white filter pad recomended for Eheim professional 2? Are there minuses such as clogging quicker, etc?. thanks

[Kasakato]

This floss: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=24661;category_id=1965;pcid 1=;pcid2=
Works great in almost all filters.

[RTR]

If you are using Eheim's Ehfisustrat as biofiltration media, I would suggest sticking with the Eheim fine pad above it to protect the impeller and its housing. Fines from the sintered glass are potentially injurious to destructive, so substitution here would be false economy IMHO.

[yehoshua]

thanks, RTR (from Tom's Place?) what about Siporex or Episubsrtat Pro? Does all sintered glass shed "splinters"? And if we're at it: what are some common practises regarding canisters which you'd advise against as "false economies" and the like? How can I use my expensive filter well without nesscesarily having to depend on Eheim's products which are not in every store? Thanks again.

[Kasakato]

Now Im lost. What kind of media do you have in your filter. All Eheim media can be bought from: www.bigalsonline.com

[yehoshua]

I use, in my brand new filter, siporax from Sera and some efisubstrat PRO. The big al place--they apparently ship only to the US or Canada. I don't live there... Thank you

[RTR]

I use Dupla's Minikaskade as my biofilter substrate in most of my canisters, Eheim's Ehfisubstrat in a few. I use Eheim's sponges for mechanical medium. As I have no sintered glass media in my canisters, the fine pads are not needed. All my media are "permanent", none requires routine or even periodic replacement.

Yes, I mod FW at Tom's. There is an article in Aquasource there on my filter techniques.

[JSchmidt]

Ehfimech (the ceramic noodles, not sintered glass noodles like Siporax) work great as eternal media in canisters. They don't shed fines, so no sponge or filterpad is needed to protect the impeller. Even better, if you prefilter (with something like FilterMax III) you rarely need to clean the canister. RTR article that he mentions above should be required reading for anyone looking at alternative ways to pack their canisters.

Jim

[yehoshua]

I did read the excellent RTR article-- but doesn't the technique demand additional or pre filtration, as stated there? Can I use my single filter with ceramic material, sponge and plastic material, maybe no floss at all and still have clear healthy water? Maybe here, floss can or should be used (if there is no other machanical or pre-filtration present?) Anyway, I understand that ANY sintered material sheds fines and that is maybe the main reason for the fine white pad?
--Yehoshua

[RTR]

I always multi-filter, have for years/decades now. My mechanical and biofilters are separate so that I can rinse the mech frequently (at least weekly in FW, daily in salt) including the prefilters for the bio-only canisters. Keep your biofilter clean (remember, it works only on dissolved materials) and clean your mech as frequently as possible to reduce the bioload. Works for me, and quite a few others.

All-in-one filtration sounds convenient, but after keeping a lot of tanks alot of years I realized that it is not, it is a PITA and much more work than division of filtration by the nature of what you want to accomplish.

As sintered glass is not a permanent medium (despite many maufacturer's claims to the contrary - at least Eheim is honest about it), I have not tested that many brands that are still on the market so cannot answer your shedding question.

[JSchmidt]

I would expect that all sintered glass would be likely to shed fines. I thought the problem was that water current caused the pieces of sintered glass media to rub against one another, occasionally causing small bits to break off. I would be suprised if any of the sintered glass media would be immune from that. They all have the rough, brittle texture.

Jim