Seamless Sump® Bio Media
With so many types of bio media on the market, finding the best one for your aquarium filtration can be overwhelming.
Below, we’ll walk you through how and why we selected our bio media at Custom Aquariums. We also use it with our sister company, Serenity Aquarium and Aviary Services, which services hundreds of aquariums in professional spaces.
Benefits of Seamless Sump® Bio Media
- High Surface area
- Doesn’t break down
- Doesn’t collect detritus or other organic matter that can fester
- Allows plenty of flow rate for an efficient reaction
- Cost-effective
- Doesn’t alter your water chemistry
- Easy to clean and recharge
Features of Sump® Bio Media
Seamless Sump® Bio Media is comprised of medium-sized, round, white, smooth, ceramic (glass) bio balls for our bio media. When weighing the pros and cons of the types of media, it was clear that this is the best choice.
Bio Media Shape
If you get a biomaterial with a complicated (and sometimes gimmicky) shape, it’s more likely to trap detritus and other organic matter which can fester and poison your water. The round shape of our Seamless Sump® bio media creates the least number of voids for material to get trapped.
Remember, the pre-filter sock is where you want your particles to be trapped, not in your media stack. If the particles get to the bio media stack, you want them to continue through the system so it has another chance to be trapped in your pre-filter sock the next time around. The bio stack is intended to have a “good” bacteria culture to react with and purify your water, not to trap particles.
Bio Ball Texture
We chose a smooth material for the same reason as the shape, to prevent organic matter from being trapped in the bio stack. Seamless Sump® bio media has a lot of surface area, but if the bio balls were coarse and trapped undesirable material, it would negate the advantage of the increased surface area. So, keeping the bio media stack clean of detritus is an important task.
Bio Media Material
Some manufacturers use materials like clay for their bio media. This is because it’s less expensive to make and it intentionally deteriorates. The clay also tends to be pitted and coarse, which may add surface area but also create a debris trap.
We try to do right by our customers and never intentionally design products that require expendables. So, the long-term cost of ceramic bio balls is actually less expensive than other materials that decay.
Bio Media Chemistry
We must also consider what the material does to the chemistry of the water. Our ceramic bio balls are basically the same as glass and are completely inert, meaning they will change nothing about the chemistry of your water.
Some clay, quartzite, and others will change the mineral content and PH of the water, which causes major issues and reaffirms that ceramic is the preferred material.
Bio Ball Size
The smaller the bio ball, the more surface area you will get. If you fill a cup with 10mm bio balls and another with 15mm bio balls, the cup with 10mm bio balls will have a much greater overall surface area for “good bacteria” to grow.
However, if the bio balls are too small, they’ll be so dense that it inhibits water flow. Water should efficiently flow through the stack and accommodate your desired flow rate without slowing the water down too much. Through many tests, we found the right size that maximizes surface area while letting water flow through the stack.
Bio Ball Color
We use white bio media so when you service your aquarium, you can see how much life is left in the material. When you put new Seamless Sump® bio media in, it will be white, and slowly yellow as it processes more water. You can also determine which media stack is the oldest when you replace or recharge part of your stack.
Bio Media Reusability
You can recharge the Seamless Sump® bio media by boiling it in water.
Keep in mind, when you recharge the bio media, it becomes less efficient as dead bacteria cells may not come loose from the bio balls. Some estimates are you lose about 10% efficiency with every recharge due to less surface area.
Bio Media Cost
Since the material is inexpensive, we discard one basket every six weeks. This amounts to a bucket or a bucket-and-a-half per year of Seamless Sump® bio media for an average tank. When you look at the investment you have into your complete aquarium, it is usually worth it for the peace of mind of always having a fresh bacteria culture. However, if budget is more of a concern, it is an easy option to recharge the bio media up to a few times before discarding it.
Because we are a factory direct company, we have the ability to buy our Seamless Sump® bio media in bulk by the ton, and we sell in larger 5L quantities (roughly the correct amount for a typical Seamless Sump® System). There is not a lot of packaging or markup (i.e.- distributor, wholesaler, retailer, etc.). This is why we provide superior quality bio media for LESS than just about any other product.
The Proof is in the Results
Through Serenity’s aquarium services, we have vast experience caring for hundreds of aquariums. This system of small ceramic bio balls in conjunction with a convenient, easy-to-clean, easy-to-replace, organized culture in a properly designed media stack (see our Seamless Sump® system) has proven to have the best results of any system we’ve tried.
There is also validation when you look at the various water treatment centers around the world. By far the most common material used in treating municipal water for human consumption is ceramic bio balls that we use.
