The Next Generation Filter Media - look here

[koisplash]

Greetings,

I've been looking at all sorts of rotating Plastic filter medias, Kaldness K1 seems to be the leading filter media of Choice among experts, how about some alternatives that can compete with K1 in the cost per Square foot of Surface Area department??

What do you think about Plastic Bottle Caps?

I've calculated the SSA of a typical plastic water bottle cap to be 145 sqf /cubic foot
that is approximately 60% per cent of the SSA of kaldness k1

i can buy 1 cubic foot of k1 for $60 so that is 0.25 cents / sqf
if i could buy plastic caps for $10 that would be 0.07 cents /sqf

72% savings

would anyone here recommend plastic caps to their customers?????

i started collecting them , here is the first 100, My First 100 Water Bottle Caps

I need around 3500 for 1 cubic foot. I am curious how they will workout as filter media, has anyone used them before?

so if you have any free caps lying around send them my way

koisplash

[An Ly]

my friend made his DIY filter and just use a lot of hair curls, can buy at the 98cents store, not sure how effective but his ponds seems to be pretty clear, and his water quality is good with 0 ammonian and nitrite.

An

[bekko]

I love bottle caps. They float and in an aerated filter they will catch some air and push up through the media doing a good job of mixing.

We have a recycling program that surcharges 5-cents for plastic bottles at purchase and a 5-cent redemption at the recycling center. However, you have to remove the bottle caps before turning them in because it is a different type of plastic than the bottle. Therefore, it's easy to scrounge bottle caps and the guys at the recycling center will save them up for you if you slip them some cash on the side.

You can also buy shreded plastic. They chop it up all those plastic bottles so it is more compact for shipping.

Still, I would rather have more kaldness if I could afford it.

-steveho pki

[JasPR]

when is something that is plastic, small and collectible not an ideal filter media? When it is plastic forks, plastic army men, plastic shipping strapping, PVC pipe chips, bottle caps, styro peanuts ------- etc. etc,

The reason is-- surface area is only ONE of the needed parameters that makes 'bits of things' suitable for biofilm cultivation.

Beyond pure potential growing area, you need:

void space
non packing properties/characteristics
non trapping properties

Keep looking! JR

[MikeM]

Yeah, what JR said. And, to get the same overall surface area alone, you will need twice as much filter space... there went your savings.

[koisplash]

Originally Posted by An Ly

my friend made his DIY filter and just use a lot of hair curls, can buy at the 98cents store, not sure how effective but his ponds seems to be pretty clear, and his water quality is good with 0 ammonian and nitrite.
An

An Ly, Hair Curls? i would have never thought about that, that is an interesting idea, thanks

Originally Posted by bekko

I love bottle caps. They float and in an aerated filter they will catch some air and push up through the media doing a good job of mixing.

We have a recycling program that surcharges 5-cents for plastic bottles at purchase and a 5-cent redemption at the recycling center. However, you have to remove the bottle caps before turning them in because it is a different type of plastic than the bottle. Therefore, it's easy to scrounge bottle caps and the guys at the recycling center will save them up for you if you slip them some cash on the side.

You can also buy shreded plastic. They chop it up all those plastic bottles so it is more compact for shipping.

Still, I would rather have more kaldness if I could afford it.

-steveho pki

Steve, I wasn't sure how well they will be mixing, so i'm glad to hear that it's working for you well. i inquired at city of guelph recycling (near me) and they said the caps are too small for their equipment to sort them so they just go to the landfill (how sad). so I hope to find a recycling center similar to the one you wrote about where they recycle caps, i 'll try to slip some cash

Originally Posted by JasPR

when it something that is plastic, small and collectible not an ideal filter media? When it is plastic forks, plastic army men, plastic shipping strapping, PVC pipe chips, bottle caps, styro peanuts ------- etc. etc,

The reason is-- surface area is only ONE of the needed parameters that makes 'bits of things' suitable for biofilm cultivation.

Beyond pure potential growing area, you need:

void space
non packing properties/characteristics
non trapping properties

Keep looking! JR

thanks for your reply JR,
Ok, plastic army man haha

I thought that caps would be good enough to give a good bang for no buck
i realize that caps are not the perfect structure for maximum SSA, and have potentially problematic properties as you mentioned such as "packing" or "trappng", i am curious to explore how much of a role these properties will play with in a well mixing filter , (Bekko said they mix fairly well), and if they become an issue, they might.

I'll have my eyes open, thanks

Originally Posted by MikeM

Yeah, what JR said. And, to get the same overall surface area alone, you will need twice as much filter space... there went your savings.

Mike you are right it will take almost twice the amount of space, that might be an issue.
How about Plastic-Caps vs Bio-Balls, they have very similar SSA, (144 vs 160)sqf/cf
with Bio-Balls not being that cheap.

I'd like to introduce one more criteria when it comes to choosing filter media, how environmentally respectably is the media? Plastic-Caps being 100% recycled material

[gregbickal]

Plastic Bottle Caps... BTDT... Too much work....

Have you seen my Bickal Bio Rope?
http://www.bickal.com/biorope

[Steve Nguyen]

interesting approach. I guess increase the size of the filter chamber to make up the lack of density. it should work.

Steve

Originally Posted by koisplash

Greetings,

I've been looking at all sorts of rotating Plastic filter medias, Kaldness K1 seems to be the leading filter media of Choice among experts, how about some alternatives that can compete with K1 in the cost per Square foot of Surface Area department??

What do you think about Plastic Bottle Caps?

I've calculated the SSA of a typical plastic water bottle cap to be 145 sqf /cubic foot
that is approximately 60% per cent of the SSA of kaldness k1

i can buy 1 cubic foot of k1 for $60 so that is 0.25 cents / sqf
if i could buy plastic caps for $10 that would be 0.07 cents /sqf

72% savings

would anyone here recommend plastic caps to their customers?????

i started collecting them , here is the first 100, My First 100 Water Bottle Caps

I need around 3500 for 1 cubic foot. I am curious how they will workout as filter media, has anyone used them before?

so if you have any free caps lying around send them my way

koisplash

[koisplash]

Hi Greg,

I like your Bio-Rope™ very much.
You don't mind if I include it in my filter media comparison chart?

[hansen]

don't know if you guys like plastic bio-balls. use to use them in my salt water wet dry filter. just bought 3000 pc of 1.5 inch for 60.00 shipped to my door. will use them in my koi pond.