Polyester fiber as Bio media??

A

Aqualung

AC Members
Jan 31, 2004
845
0
0
Visit site
I have a 29 gallon tank which has been planted for almost a week now......no fish at the moment. The tank came with a cheap HOB filter. I wanted to replace the carbon filter cartridge with sponge for bio-filtration. The problem is, I spent all weekend trying to find a sponge that would fitorat least one big enough so I could cut it to the right size. Well - no such luck, and I looked everywhere!

What I did was, I took the old media off the cartridge leaving just the plastic and attached some polyester batting with elastics. My question is this.....will this be sufficient for the bacteria to attach itself to?
 
Sure it will. Polyester batting has lots of surface area. I use it in my HOB's in addition to a sponge. It tends to wear out faster than a sponge would though, so I would still keep looking for a suitable one.
 
Poly batting will work, What brand is you cheap HOB?

Big Al's sells a lot of different Misc sponges, but I usually buy the ones for an AC 500 at the LFS and chop them up.
 
You can get polyester filter media from your LFS. Be carefull if you get your polyester from other sources such as packaging because they are often time treated with pesticides.
 
Thanks!

I thought it would work, but wanted to be sure. I will keep an eye out for a suitable sponge as well.

My filter is called an Aquatech. It seems to work ok but it is annoyingly noisy. I'm considering replacing it with a bio-wheel or something and keeping this one on hand as backup.

I got the polyester in the craft dept. at Wal-Mart. There's nothing on the package to indicate that anything has been added to it, supposed to be just plain polyester fiber. I sure hope there aren't any chemicals in it!
 
I've used poly batting from W@l-M@rt for several months in my tanks, the only downside that I have noticed is the material is more open, so they don't filter the finest particles, but they don't clog as quickly either.
 
not familier with aqua tech. But one other downside to useing craft batting is it can come loose as opposed to the way the aquarium batting is made for some reason. My brother had used some of my mothers in his old filter that was a hob powered by an airpump that used carbon in the bottom and put the batton on top of it.
 
I have read somewhere that 'Baby Bumper' batting (can find at your local fabric store) is good to use and doesn't come apart.

bumerbatting.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom