All pet owners have a goal of creating a healthy living environment for their pet. For those who own amphibians, aquatic or semi-aquatic reptiles, this means having excellent biological filtration to maintain a stable and safe aquatic environment.
The key for optimal biological filtration is having enough surface area for ample biofilm to grow, and this means using quality biofilter media, such as MarinePure® Biofilter Media. But do you know where and how to use MarinePure®? In this blog we will discuss how and where to place your MarinePure media and why. Read here on why having a a biofilter in your tank is important.
WHICH MARINEPURE TO USE
In general, the filtration system you choose will depend on the size of the tank, how many gallons of water in the system and the precise care requirements for your pet. No matter the system size, MarinePure has several shapes and sizes that fit your needs. To help you choose, here are a few of our MarinePure products and some guidelines about how much water they are designed to filter.
- MarinePure GEMs
- They are the smallest product we carry. Perfect for hang-on-the-back filters and smaller filtration systems. They come in a 90g package, and one package is good for up to 75 gallons of water.
- MarinePure PODs
- They have a unique organic shape, with a 3.1-inch width for a deep cross section and enhanced nitrate reduction. They are packaged in a 3-count and a 24-count package. The 3-count package is good for 100 gallons of water and the 24-count package is good for filtering 750 gallons of water.
- MarinePure SPHEREs
- They are our most versatile shape with a 1.5-inch diameter. Packaged in 2-quart and 1-gallon boxes or 5-gallon pails. The 2-quart package is good for filtering 250 gallons of water, while the 1-gallon package is good for 500 gallons of water.
HOW AND WHERE
The rule of thumb for biofilter medias used in flowing water is to make sure the water goes through mechanical filtration before it goes through the media. This is to prevent your biofilter media from possibly clogging, but more importantly, by cleaning the mechanical filter frequently, the solid debris (which is full of protein) can be discarded before the proteins breakdown into ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Like other biofilter medias, MarinePure should be placed after the mechanical filter.
Most commercial filtration systems will have a designated area for biological filtration. If you have a canister filter, a hang-on-the-back filter, or any premade/manufactured filtration system then the location for your biofilter media has already been chosen for you…… if you decide to follow that suggestion. Otherwise, MarinePure can go virtually anywhere you can imagine in the water system. Since it comes in several shapes and sizes you can choose the location and shape that would work best for your system, in what makes sense to you. But here are a couple tips if you plan to strategically place your MarinePure biofilter media to optimize the results:
- To target Ammonia and Nitrites, place MarinePure in a high flow area of your system
- The high oxygen water flows through the media, perfect for aerobic bacteria.
- This is the situation you need to make sure you have mechanical filtration in front of the biomedia.
- To target Nitrates, place MarinePure in a low flow area of your system
- The Oxygen in the water will be used up as it goes through the media. Once nitrifying bacteria uses all the available Oxygen, denitrifying bacteria will pull the oxygen molecule from the nitrate molecule, converting it into nitrogen gas which will then escape the tank.
MARINEPURE UNIQUENESS
What makes MarinePure stand out from the rest is its unique interconnected pore structure, that does a couple things.
- It has large pores which resist clogging and allow water to flow throughout the entire piece, making the entire media usable for bacteria
- It has small pores which easily house a huge number of beneficial bacteria.
Even when placing MarinePure in a high flow area, the small pores create low oxygen areas internally where denitrifying bacteria will be able to live and will still help to lower your Nitrates.
MarinePure’s benefits includes.
- creates a naturally healthy and stable water environment
- allows for higher pets loads in your system
- reduces nitrates and its annoying partner, algae
- reduces maintenance
- allows for process upsets
IN CONCLUSION
MarinePure can be placed in any water location in your system. The unique combination of high surface area AND open porosity with Thin Bio-Film Technology™ allows for a healthy biofilm to develop. Due to its interconnected open pore structure, water can easily go through the entire biofilter media, ultimately providing the bacteria easy access to all the nutrients it needs. For more information or if you have any questions regarding MarinePure, please contact us at info@cermedia.com.
