Coral as Housing for Beneficial Bacteria

[gsk177]

Why not just opt to splurge an extra $30 and get an aquaclear 500? You will have AMPLE filtration for your tank, plus have the added availablity to "customize" your furture biological needs.

If your current filter is so small that it does not allow you enough room for proper biologicals, your best bet would be to upgrade your filter.

With your current bioload, as posted in your signature, I would think a TopFin 60 would be ample filtration though. Are you experiencing some ill effects that you think are related to the filter? Or are you just wanting to UP the available space for biologicals to grow?

Your biological colonies will only reproduce to a level on par with that of your bioload. If you have a bioload of "X", your biological colonies will only grow to a level equal to that of your bioload. You can add 25 thousand square miles of available biological colony space but your colonies will still be the same. The colonies need food to grow and live. The food comes from your fish. If your fish arent producing enough food, your colonies will die.
Simply adding more space for your colonies to grow will NOT give you more biological colonies, unless your present bioload is producing enough food for more colonies to grow.

 

[Karnaaj]

I agree with gsk, this is not a situation where you can afford to be penny wise and pound foolish. A bigger filter will give you peace of mind as well as making the lives of your fish a little bit better.

 

[Max]

There are still lots of ways to save money though. You can buy a used filter off the boards and lots of times you can just ask around at the lfs or if your in school on a bulletin board and get one for next to nothing . You can also use pretty much any non-compacting material in your bio filter," plastic hair curlers are one of the more common materials". You can also get poly fill by the lb at any local fabric store, Walmart etc. the only difference between it and the stuff they sell at the fish store is the package and the price.
hth

 

[Riso-chan]

Biomedia questions

I think my filter is okay for now, the only other fish I plan to add are 4 more ottos, and 4 swortails. I'm looking to up the surface space were bacteria can grow. I need to know how to arrange and place the leggos or hair curlers in my tank, and also maintenance/ cleaning. I don't think there's enough room in the filter itself to hold much, but I've read that plastic media can be placed anywhere in the tank where there is good waterflow.