Larry, Alamogordo

In April, 2014, Larry made his first purchase of Biohome media from GreatWave. He’d been using some already that he’d got from the UK. As soon as the shipment arrived he sent me this nice note.

Apr/14/2014

I just want to thank you for the fast shipping on the media. I have been using the Biohome plus for about two months and seems to be doing great. Once you have Ultimate back in stock I will order some of that also.

Using it in the SunSun HW-404B canister filter 525gph with UV off to establish colony. Filter is kinda overkill for my 40 gallon breeder but with two concentric diamond back terrapin’s I want great water quality. And so far Biohome is living up to it’s hype from Richard in UK.”

True to his word as soon as the resupply of Ultimate arrived Larry did place another order and gave me this update.

Apr/21/14

Don,

Just saw that the Biohome ultimate was in stock again and ordered 500g of it also. So that will give me 1.5Kg total weight of Biohome in my turtles canister filter using 500g of the plus, mini ultra, and now ultimate when it arrives.

I am still super impressed with how well and fast the nitrogen cycle happens with the Biohome. My biggest concern was using it with turtles, ammonia spikes are a common occurrence due to larger waste production but I don’t see any of that at all. I have some free floating Anacharis plants in tank that must be helping Biohome keep nitrate to almost nothing. I have been twice daily monitoring the water parameters to see how long water conditions maintain without water changes using Biohome.

This is not something I normally do but was curious to monitor water conditions using Biohome, I almost religiously do water changes every two weeks on turtle tank. Outside of topping off about 1 liter of water per day due to evaporation, I have done no water changes in close to 6 weeks.

The water is still at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, less then 5ppm nitrate barely a color change, and ph holding strong at 7.5. This is with a strict once a day feeding and twice a week shrimp snack as to not over feed. The total contents of the 40 gallon breeder tank are two concentric diamond back terrapins, HMPK betta, Siamese algae eater, and ghost shrimp “10 or less if turtles catch some”. I will attach a picture of Leonard, one of my terrapins to show how clear the water is.

Thank you,

Larry”

Unfortunately, I misplaced the photo of Leonard, or I would have posted it here. Fortunately, Larry just placed his third order and promised to send more photos soon.

Aug/5/14

Don,

Thank you for the kind words in your last letter, sorry it has taken me this long to say thank you. With the kids and myself starting back to school it has just been busy. I just bought another 320gph canister filter for my terrapins and ordered a kilogram of Biohome for it. I am going to run it in my 40 gallon hatchling tank to seed the biofilter until I finish my 300 gallon stock tank setup.

I will send pictures again soon, some old and some new with new 5 day old hatchlings I have now. As always,

Thank you,
Larry Roush”

And the next day:

Aug/6/14

Here is the one photo you asked for the last time we talked. The other two are not in a bigger tank yet still really small about 8 days old. No filter just daily water swap in a 10 gallon that is 1/4 filled with water. I will do a comparison photo later to show the carapace is no larger than a quarter right now. I really enjoyed seeing the article on the website, hope I can add more to it over the next few months with updates.

Thank you,
Larry”

Here are Larry’s terrapins,

Nov/14/15

It has been awhile, but Larry’s been busy. He contacted me to bring me up to date on his system and his terrapins.

Hi Don,
>
> First sorry if this doesn’t go strait to Don anymore but years ago
> always heard from him. I have since upgraded my tank and filter since
> my last purchase. I am now running a Proclear Aquatics Premier 125
> Wet/Dry and a 55 gallon tank for Leonard. It has been running almost 6
> months now and seems to be doing a great job. I used 90% of my current
> Biohome as a planting media for my red mangroves I also planted in the
> sump, the rest was tossed in the bioballs.
>
> Now to my questions for the continuation of the build. I want to
> incorporate Biohome MAXI into this build now. The filter has about 3″
> of wasted space under egg crate holding bioball, do you think adding
> MAXI in it will have adverse effects to filter flowrate or
> performance? Also the area for this is 10″x10″ squared area before the
> coarse sponge. As always any thoughts or suggestion are much
> appreciated.
>
>
> Thank you,
> Larry
==================================

Larry,
Good to hear from you again. Glad things are going well.

I see you’ve been using Ultimate and a bit of Mini. MAXI should flow better since it is larger there will be larger gaps between the pieces.

To get some idea of how it works in a sump check out the Customer’s Page and see Dario’s page. He’s been real happy with MAXI in his sump.

Hope the terrapins are doing well. Have a great weekend, and…

Happy Terrapin Keeping,

And Larry replied:

Don,

So good to hear from you also.

Terrapin’s are doing great, I just added a 2015 blue concentric hatchling to the collection. After much debate we decided to name him/her Glacier as it’s a unisex name, will be two years before sex is determined.

I am having one problem with my trickle filter and see if you can help with it. This is not my first trickle filter, I had one for years running on my 75 gallon reef tank about 15 years ago. My drip plate filter pads keep filling with water and overflowing the plate within 24 hours. They are completely clean without any visible sign of being dirty, IE discolored at all. I have received a couple of drip plates I bought from the company that make my trickle filter, so I can try different modifications. So far I am only having this problem with the pink filter media rolls, pinkyfilters and one other pink brand from Aqua Flo. I have tried many different drip configurations, drilling one with 150 1/4″ holes, starting with smaller holes in center working larger toward the edge, and just standard factory drilled. No matter what I do the s am e outcome is achieved within 24 hours of replacing the filter pads. I have a flow valve installed on the return line and adjusting the flow has no effect on this either.

I contacted both companies that make them and both say they have never had issues before. Both brands have tons of positive reviews which is the main reason I gave them a try. I have ordered some regular 10′ blue/white bonded filter roll to see if it has the same results. I did have some blue/white Marineland brand cut to fit that I had no trouble with but ran out, changed weekly Friday-Friday. For the life of me it just doesn’t make sense why I can’t figure it out. There is so much water falling from the drip plate I just can’t believe it can fill it at all. Also I am well within the max GPH this system is designed for at the factory setting of 625GPH. Any thoughts on what I might be able to do Don?

Thank you,

Larry

Attached is pics of Glacier/Leonard and filter you can see water collecting in plate.

Tortise 2

Some lovely terrapins!

Plugged Skimmer — Plugged Filter Overflowing

Dec/8/15

A couple of weeks later I got another update:

Don,

That’s all it was, just way to fine of a pad for this type of filtration system. I found a place in Texas that makes a blue/white bonded pad and they work perfect, pretty good on pricing also 12″x10′ roll for $9 free shipping.

The Biohome Maxi is just fantastic for this system and I just placed another 1kg order a few minutes ago. I’m in the process of reworking my filter as a whole right now, I will still use bioballs but in conjunction with Biohome. I will have Maxi in all the areas of the Trickle that stay submerged and keep bioballs for oxygenation and aerobic break down. That way if there was a power outage and the bioballs dried out the Biohome will be submerged and able to help recolonize faster.

Hopefully after the holidays I can order the last 1-2kg I will need to fill it in, VA disability check doesn’t stretch very far this time of year. Take care and Merry Christmas to the whole Greatwave Team.

Thank you,

Larry
========================================
Larry,
Glad to hear you have that issue sorted out. I saw that order, thanks a bunch. I’m real glad the MAXI is working so well for you and your tortoises.

A little later in the day more info and some more pictures.

Yea water is staying super clean and very clear. Here is a picture of Leonard and Glacier. The little bit of white debris is from a cuttlefish bone they just ate. Normally the tank is spot less in a few minutes, water is turned over 10-11 times an hour.

and a bit after that:

Adding a couple more photos of the Terrapins. If you think they can be used on your site as a testament to Biohome please use them. NO chemical filtration is used in the setup just filter pad, bioballs/biohome, one coarse foam block, and 6 red mangroves. The live rock is artificial molded, so not really helpful like real reef tanks.

The US Distributor of Biohome® Media, Cloverleaf and RP Aquatics Products.

We also sell High Quality Poret Foam. We offer the best prices and customer service

In April, 2014, Larry made his first purchase of Biohome media from GreatWave. He’d been using some already that he’d got from the UK. As soon as the shipment arrived he sent me this nice note.

Apr/14/2014

Apr/21/14

Unfortunately, I misplaced the photo of Leonard, or I would have posted it here. Fortunately, Larry just placed his third order and promised to send more photos soon.

Aug/5/14

And the next day:

Aug/6/14

Here are Larry’s terrapins,

Nov/14/15

It has been awhile, but Larry’s been busy. He contacted me to bring me up to date on his system and his terrapins.

And Larry replied:

Some lovely terrapins!

Dec/8/15

A couple of weeks later I got another update:

A little later in the day more info and some more pictures.

and a bit after that:

Unfortunately, I don’t know my tortoises from my terrapins, but they look way cool!