Need help with m

[Rob Jordan]

No Description

[Harold Sukhbir]

Need help with m....edia?

[Rob Jordan]

Power went out. Storms. Yes, trying to find good media. Hydroton is ridiculously priced with shipping. I am a beginner. I need something reliable. Live in Arkansas. Any suggestions?

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Rob,

I use pea gravel with great results and its cheap enough. This is the 1/4 inch quartz stone. I know some people here use expanded shale. Have a look in the Media section on the forums, I'm sure you will find something suitable.

[Keith Rowan]

i'm using river gravel,, #57 grade (most of it is 1/2" to 3/4"

smaller media may cause some minor issues after time.. mainly channeling or clogged areas

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi All,

I've been using this 1/4 inch stone for 3 years now without any special treatment to the GB and have no clogging/channeling issues. I have tried in other systems the 1/2" - 3/4" gravel and have found some differences. The pumps i use are submersible types, and this is important because it mills the fish waste into gravy before it goes to the GB's. The smaller gravel also buffers the Nitrite spikes due to feeding and is impressive with conversion even with higher fish loads. I believe that this size of gravel allows more robust bacterial colonies and therefore greater nitrification capacity as compared to the larger gravel sizes that I've tried.

[Alex Veidel]

Wow, good call Harold.

Harold Sukhbir said:

Need help with m....edia?

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Alex,

To be fair Alex, when i saw the post I checked his page and that's how I found out. So, no credit due.

Alex Veidel said:

Wow, good call Harold.

Harold Sukhbir said:

Need help with m....edia?

[RON HOWARD]

I live in Arkansas and bought a load of 3/4 to 7/8 washed gravel for my grow beds and it works great. It doesn't affect the ph. If you have question if the gravel in your area will affect ph go to the gravel pit with a bottle of vinegar and a cup to see if it reacts.

[David Wyatt]

I have had great luck with a lava rock pea gravel mix. the lava rock is very porous and helps cut down on the weight of pea gravel. now it the time to buy it because most of the home improvement stores and wal mart have it on clearance

 

[RON HOWARD]

You are right. I have a small system with pea gravel in it. But I built a larger system that took about 6 yards of gravel and naturaly this would have cost quit a bit to do. The thing with gravel is I live close to the pit and can go get small amounts very cheap because the manager likes to talk about aquaponics.  It works very well but it is very rough and can cut the liner this happened one of my beds.