Filtration Facts
Biohome Media for Full-Cycle Filtration
The most efficient biological filter media that supports aerobic and anaerobic bacteria that clears your water of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate that would harm your marine life.
Healthier Water. Happier Fish!
What is Biohome® Media?
Biohome® Media — Advanced Biological Filtration Technology
Biohome® Media is engineered from sintered glass, a manufacturing process where high-purity recycled glass is combined into a precision slurry, expertly shaped, and kiln-fired at high temperatures to fuse glass particles at a molecular level.
The result is an exceptionally porous, high-performance biological filter media with an extraordinary surface area that accelerates beneficial bacterial colonization. Unlike conventional media that quickly become clogged with dense biofilm, Biohome®’s advanced porous architecture maintains optimal water flow while sustaining a thriving bacterial ecosystem.
What truly sets Biohome® apart is its dual-zone filtration capability. The outer surface provides an oxygen-rich environment where aerobic bacteria rapidly eliminate toxic ammonia and nitrite. Deep within the core of each piece, where oxygen levels are minimal, anaerobic denitrifying bacteria actively break down nitrate, delivering a level of water purification that most filter media simply cannot achieve.
For complete nitrate reduction, a higher volume of media is recommended, as anaerobic denitrifying bacteria establish more gradually than their aerobic counterparts. The results, however, are exceptional, cleaner, healthier water with significantly reduced water change frequency.
The Importance of an Adequate Filter and Clean Water
Your filtration system will make or break your aquatic habitat. It’s the guts of your aquarium or pond and its purpose is to remove fish waste, excess food, free-floating particulate, dangerous chemicals, and decaying plant matter. Marine life, like humans, require a balanced environment where they can survive and thrive safely and comfortably.
As fish swim around their habitat, they get rid of their waste constantly. Without an adequate filtration system, the fish end up poisoning themselves with the toxins from their excretions. This is called ammonia stress when seen in its earliest stages and ammonia poisoning when it’s fatal!
Adequate Filtration Requires 2 Distinct Stages
Mechanical Stage:
Adequate mechanical filtration is required to remove any visible debris from your tank. They take many forms, settlement chambers, socks, filter floss and porous foam.
It is critical this stage be located before your biological stage to prevent debris from plugging the small pores of your biological stage. Mechanical filters should never be placed after the biological stage as this causes any debris that might still be in the stream to back up into the biological media.
By it’s nature the mechanical stage will require regular maintenance. The maintenance period will depend on the type of livestock, the load and amount of food used. We recommend starting off by cleaning once a month. If it still appears to be relatively clean at that time, try cleaning after two months, and so on until you’ve establish an effective schedule.
GreatWave recommends and sells Poret Foam manufactured by a leading German filter manufacturer. Generally we suggest a stack of Coarse, Medium and Fine Foam
Biological Stage:
This stage houses the beneficial bacteria that break down ammonia and nitrite. The media simply provides a home for these bacteria.
There are a couple of features important to providing a good home for bacteria. Surface area is perhaps the most important. The more surface area you can provide the more bacteria can thrive in your filter.
Next is a natural surface, compatible with bacteria growth. Bacteria will grow on almost any surface, but on plastic and other man made surfaces they must lay down a heavy biofilm to survive. This restricts the amount of space they have to grow and will eventually plug the media.
The natural silica surface of Biohome is extremely compatible with bacteria. You won’t even be able to see the Biofilm and the trace elements in many varieties provides elements the bacteria need to thrive.
However, it takes time for the bacteria to develop a large enough colony to eliminate the harmful elements. My experience this will take 3 to 4 weeks.
Chemicals:
Almost every filter comes with an activated carbon pad. GreatWave does not recommend these. They have been implicated in several fish health problems. Carbon works by absorption and when it’s full it must be replaced. The trick is to know when it’s full and this cycle gets to be very expensive very fast. Bacteria work for free and never get full.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of chemical additives claiming to solve your water problems. Be very careful when considering these, check reviews and get as much advice as possible. We suggest you never add a product that will remove or bind ammonia or nitrite as these work against the bacteria by depriving them of the ammonia and nitrite they need to survive.
If you have a new tank with a filter that has not yet been properly cycled and you wish to have fish safely immediately, we offer Ammonia Block by RP Aquatics. This product removes ammonia by absorption. It is placed after the biological media so does not interfere with the normal cycle, but does remove any ammonia present keeping your fish safe until the cycle is complete.
If you cycle your filter properly and if it is of proper size for you tank, do not overfeed or overstock, you should never see ammonia or nitrite.