Sump
- Thread starter frankie
- Start date
broomer5
Active Member
Unless this polyester media is your "SOLE" biofiltration - then I'd suggest you consider changing it when it looks dirty, or establish a routine that says "I will change this media every 2 weeks no matter what".
You don't want to go through this polyester stuff so fast that you need to buy a spool of it - but you also don't want to let it remain in the water's flowpath so long that any trapped wastes begin to rot either.
Rotting nasty mechanical filter media can easily become a biofilter - which in turn may rob your other forms of biofiltration/bacteria of the ammonia/nitrite that it/they need to continue to reproduce and grow.
Some claim it can increase nitrate formation - which all biofiltration does anyway.
I look at mechanical filtration as just that - mechanical removal of small unwanted plant material, suspended detritus and other solid particles.
You don't want to go through this polyester stuff so fast that you need to buy a spool of it - but you also don't want to let it remain in the water's flowpath so long that any trapped wastes begin to rot either.
Rotting nasty mechanical filter media can easily become a biofilter - which in turn may rob your other forms of biofiltration/bacteria of the ammonia/nitrite that it/they need to continue to reproduce and grow.
Some claim it can increase nitrate formation - which all biofiltration does anyway.
I look at mechanical filtration as just that - mechanical removal of small unwanted plant material, suspended detritus and other solid particles.