20 replies to this topic

[koiguy1969]

has anyone ever tried packing peanuts for their biofilter media?
theyve got good surface area, are very bouiant, and are real cheap.. my concern is the polystyrene leaching toxins...any body with first hand knowledge?
heres a pic for those who may not know what im talking about...

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[koidaddy]

Wouldn't them floating be a bad thing?

[koiguy1969]

nope.. a grid above them to keep them in their place and a grid below to keep them from exiting the filter upon flushing...im talking like for use in our 55 gallon upflow filters in the DIY section.(stickyed)...

[koidaddy]

I understand. You might have something with the toxins though but I don't know for sure.
I use pieces of 1/2" pvc cut into 1 - 1 1/2" long like the ones used in the 55 gal setup.

[koiguy1969]

thats Dr daves setup ..i used scrubby pads and they perform extremely well, but when my guys go back outside i plan on addng another filter in series so im just looking to save some money. ive been seeing them on craigslist for free alot lately by the garbage bags full.

[DrCase]

I dont know about that one koiguy
if you had to lift up the grid with water in the filter it would all jump out at you..
I get wore out with it just trying to dump it in the trash can.
I sure dont know whats in it

[DrDave]

My little tubes have worked very well. I am in the midst of re-doing my "Doc Filter", this time I am using rolls of plastic fencing material. I can always go back and re-use the tubes if this does not perform as well.

When I cleaned out the tubes, I found that some made it into the 2" dump valve and as a result, I was not getting a full flush, If I had a better grid in the bottom, that would not have happened.

I had about a foot of sludge that the tubes kept from making it to the top and going into the pond. More proof that the tubes method works well. I hope to see if the fencing material performs as well.

By not having anything that can plug the dump valve, I hope to get great results. Picture of the re-build will be on my website soon.

I would be carefull of the peanuts. A lot of them are actually edible now and are biodegradeable so they don't pollute land fills. That said, they might disolve in your filter and poison the water.

Put some in boiling water and see what happens.

[koiguy1969]

my scrubbys are still performing great...i just want to know about the peanuts, if they release toxins, get waterlogged etc.. for a second filter.

[ZmanArt007]

Don't packing peanuts desolve in water? I am pretty sure some do. That could be an issue.

[koiguy1969]

this is the basic idea... the bouiancy of the peanuts would keep them up at the top grid and the water from the skippy pouring in would keep them rolling around in the filter chamber as a moving media rather than static keeping them more consistantly evenly exposed to water flow and allowing any small particles to keep from building up in the peanuts. this too would be equiped a flush/ empty valve

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Edited by koiguy1969, 05 February 2010 - 01:18 AM.

[DrDave]

Do the boiling water test.

[koikeepr]

you could just bag 'em in a net bag to keep 'em all together. Still, I personally wouldn't use 'em. THey just break apart too easily and you'll have little bits all over the place.

[Bullfrog]

Any time you have a concern about the safety of a particular product you should Google the MSDS the Material Safety Data Sheet. All products have a MSDS and those products are examined for example before they enter any government facility or large processing plant. It is a safety measure should any employees ingest or come into contact with said material and the first aid measures to be taken.

Expanded polystyrene (packing peanuts) are the same thing that coffee cups and some plates are made of. It is inert and the only hazards I saw were breathing the dust and it will burn easily giving off fumes. Used as a filter media they will be wet so the flammability is not an issue. Some benzene is used in the production of expanded polystyrene but no health issues have been identified so far.

I still don't have enough posts to add a link but you can gooogle expanded polystyrene msds.

[DrDave]

Benzine C6 H6 is a known carcinigen.

[Bullfrog]

DrDave said:

Benzine C6 H6 is a known carcinigen.

That's why I mentioned it. When I do put in my pond I'm going to stick with rocks and sand and construct the bubble up self cleaning type of filter. I work at a refinery for now and they say "There is no benzene in this facility."

Pure benzene, no. Products that contain benzene? Yes.