How many "pot scrubbers"

legendaryfrog

legendaryfrog

Tactical Refreshment Action
Nov 25, 2006
2,100
0
0
44
arlington heights - hoffman estates, IL
hi y'all. im half way through finishing my wet/dry, and seeing the high cost of bio-balls (12 dollars/gallon), i was wondering how many of those $ store pot scrubbers would equate to 1 gallon of bio-balls? or are there other better (cheap) diy biomedia out there?

my wet/dry is HUGE, so large bio-media if fine.
 
Scrubbies have almost 3x as much surface area per gallon (Compared to bioballs), so you can get away with a lot less.
In my sumps I use a combination of lava rock and scrubbies (and sometimes other stuff).
If you can, another cheap (free) way to get good media is go to local businesses and ask if you can take the centers of their floor scrubbing pads. They'll look at you like you're crazy but its good biomedia.
 
thanks rally, but wouldnt the floor scrubbing pads have chemical residue on them?
 
Last edited:
so, how many pot scrubbers would equal 1 gallon of bio-balls?
 
legendaryfrog said:
thanks rally, but wouldnt the floor scrubbing pads have chemical residue on them?
Click to expand...

I think those floor buffer pads come as complete circles that are scored so you can take the middle out and just throw it away. Rally is probably talking about the middles from the pads that have never been used.
 
mvigor said:
I think those floor buffer pads come as complete circles that are scored so you can take the middle out and just throw it away. Rally is probably talking about the middles from the pads that have never been used.
Click to expand...

Yea, sorry I didnt make that clear. There are some that are treated, but you'll know it if you smell them. Just sniff. They should smell like plastic.


I did a rough guess on my small sump and I'd say there is ~25 in a gallon (probably less).

Industry standard is 2.2 gallons of bioballs per 100 gallons of tank, so thats about 45 gallons per gallon of bioballs.
In theory, 1 gallon of scrubbies will be good for 135 gallons.

I'll be generous and say that there is 30 in a gallon, so for about 5 bucks you can filter 135 gallons lol....
 
COOL. i purchased 25 dollars worth. thats crazy filtration....

of course i wont use it all.....save some for oher tanks

i wish i knew about these when i made my 720 gallon wet/dry. i would have saved about 200 dollars.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom