hi all,

just got my new tank but havent got enough filter media(bio ring/noodles)

what free or cheap materials do people out there use?(just spent all my money on the tank :-? )

I was thinking of possibly using broken up brick or pieces of teracotta flower pot-would there be any problems with this after giving it a good clean(boiling)

cheers

All sorts of stuff can be used but they aren't as good as the noodles. I have heard of people using plastic hair curlers and cut up straws. Bricks and terracotta are used as caves in tanks, just give them a scrub first.

If you have any dead heaters you could use the heater cores.

You could also use scoria.

I would think terracotta would be a good thing to use very similair to ceramic noodles.. And as its already been pointed out people use terrocotta caves and stuff ive got a few in my tanks...

I have also used pummice in my filters which I think works well although I cant see the bacteria so I cant claim too much

I've seen filters that have a handful of gravel as media so I think any brick etc would work fine.

what ever you use it is better to have alot of surface area. i think scoria would be a good option.

in the end i bought 1kilo of bio ring - figured this was the best course rather than use somthing i'm not sure about.

thanks for the help though -much apreciated

cheapest filter media I have seen is the AquaOne brand.

Seems to work ok for me