Maximum surface area for the $$$?

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they are not the same the pool noodle is more a foam the bio twist as shown above is like very long hard thin plastic shavings
 
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the chips look like something more designed to help break down waste treatment plants where they will help cut up solids and self clean as they rub against each other
 

sissy

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ping pong balls are great and lightweight .It is harder to find things these days . I am glad I bought up extra bags of lava rocks a couple of years ago . Ponders here sometimes use a natural rock in their filters but it is hard to get but great for the fish
 

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I forgot about the shower! Yes, good choice! I made one for an extra stock tank I had set up and it was great! Little maintenance and great air flow for the trickling water. I think I used Matalla mats.
 
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I’ve never used lava rock personally but have seen in person that it gets filled up and no longer has the initial Porous surface layer advantage.

I believe this is the main issue with lava rock as a filter material. The pores clog up quickly and cannot be unclogged so the rock gets heavy and you lose the surface area provided by all the pores.
 
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ping pong balls are great and lightweight .It is harder to find things these days . I am glad I bought up extra bags of lava rocks a couple of years ago . Ponders here sometimes use a natural rock in their filters but it is hard to get but great for the fish
I'd avoid ping pong balls i know when they break open they stink i'm not sure what's going on there
 

sissy

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I put them in small mesh laundry bags and did the same with my lava rock so I can pull them and rinse them off . I then decided to make it even easier and put a small cheap pump in my filters with a hose attached to it that ran out of the filter . All I do is turn off my main pump and turn on my house hose to rinse and plug in the pump in my filter and back flush my filter . I use that water to water my lawn and plants . free fertilizer is always good
 
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I had an idea, what if I took plastic from anything but, let's say, soda bottles, and I cut it into flat pieces, then pressed it in a modified waffle maker that has tinny (.5mm) ridges? I have read that water pernitrates biofilm efficiently only .5mm, so a dirty bio-ball or K1 media only has a fraction of the effective surface area of a clean one. All be it, I doubt bio-balls are getting that full of biofilm or waste in a pond filter, I would think that is more of a human waste management issue...
 
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If i had to choose it would be shredded
 

sissy

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sometimes you over think filtering and it costs money and may or may not work . I went back to my childhood pond that dad and I built . lava rock was fine then and lava rock is fine now . I have used lava rock in my pond since 2005 and used the same hose since then good old sump pump hose .
 

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