Anybody use broken up pumice instead of those ceramic rings in a canister filter?
Yes! I collect pumice that washes up on my beach at work. It’s weird because the pieces look like rounded stones, but they float. The pumice that washes up in Palm Beach originates down in the Caribbean and is light grey or whitish.
Anyway, I walk the beach after storms and collect the smaller pieces and after rinsing use them in one of the canister filter trays. Seems to work very well.
BTW, as the pumice floats you typically find it way up the beach with the lightest of the beach flotsam.
sorry Mark, but you beat me to the google search. Although over the years I've looked at a lot of effectiveness comparisons, to give you a link to a current study would have been a google search for me too. Glad you found something that satisfied your question.Mark , could you reference something I could read on the surface area of pumice per cubic foot ..... in keeping fish I was told different , I am under the impression it was the least of anything mentioned , I do use it to fill space , if I thought it was a good media i'd like that ....
I use it , it works better than space , it does work , and it's cheap in large quantities , almost anything will work the difference is how well ... good ceramic bio rings will have a lot more surface area per same volume , like 10x the area ...... I would guess in a small area like a canister filter ceramic rings are as good as you can do ........ bio-balls , matala , plastic pot scrubbers or body scrubbers all have more surface area than pumice rocks per same volume ........... at least it's what I think .....
Pumice is an excellent choice for a canister filter. It has about the highest surface are for nitrifying bacteria of any media choice. Much more than pads, and even some pumice can have more than the ceramic rings. A good type of pumice will have a lot of internal surface area where they bacteria is much more resistant to drying or washing off when cleaning the filter, so can be a good choice above bio-balls, especially for canisters.
Its just that not all pumice is the same. Different durability, porosity, and even different chemistry of the material it is made of. so you need to be sure you get a type of pumice that has the porosity you need and does not leach chemicals that can affect your water chemistry and ph.