Filter Kits, Foams, Biohome, Biogravel etc: http://www.filterpro.co.uk (FilterPro site has links to Biohome suppliers in other countries) Eheim Mech: https://geni.us/lXrB7 (useful for under trays in filters which work bottom to top) Eheim Substrat Pro: https://geni.us/98euQaB (decent alternative to Biogravel). The Biorock is made from exactly the same materials as the Biohome filter media and has a porosity of approx. 50%. The structure is perfect for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to colonize so it allows for a full natural cycle to be achieved easily and compared to live rock it comes with none of the risks of bringing parasites / pests into the tank (e.g Bristleworms). Since it is a manufactured 'rock' it does not contribute to the destruction of natural ocean habitats and actually helps to fund recycling efforts in the UK since the powdered glass used in the mix is from recycling plants. In a time where the word 'sustainable' has no real meaning and has unfortunately become associated with questionable climate crisis agendas the Biorock offers a truly sustainable way to set up natural structure in any tank without destroying fragile ecosystems in Nature. *TIME STAMPS* 00:00 Intro and Biorock description 01:45 5kg box example 02:27 Example set up 03:20 Colour options 04:50 More set ups 06:26 Water / dye porosity demonstration 09:45 Internal structure 11:00 Benefits of Biorock 12:15 Plant growth and outro
*Avoid using water conditioners which claim to bind / remove / detoxify ammonia, nitrite and nitrate as it will have a pronounced starving effect on the bacteria. When bacteria is starved the population will be low as it grows in line with the available 'food'. A normal conditioner will allow the bacteria to fully populate the whole system and take away the 'need' to add more bacteria after maintenance / water change. Most people get conned into regularly using bacteria additives and that is simply to mask the side effects from a damaging conditioner and a failing filter. A normal conditioner like Tapsafe, Aquasafe, API Stress Coat etc. is all you need when a tank is properly set up, a filter is suitably sized (and properly set up) and Nature is allowed to so what Nature does.*
See below for notes on how much media is recommended for different stocking scenarios. The Q&A page of the FilterPro site has extensive notes on recommended treatments and how filtration works.
Don't "eat ze bugs" - grow your own food and create a new system ....... you can check out my efforts to create a new system to navigate Agenda 2030 on my Thousand Yard Stare channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1pgJBGQrUfCUAhk63U5u5A
A full cycle is completed by bacteria - the aerobic part of biological filtration which processes ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate followed by an anaerobic part which processes nitrate into soluble nitrogen which bubbles off to the atmosphere. Therefore it requires a suitable amount of excellent quality filter media to be able to provide the environment for both aerobic AND anaerobic bacteria - that is what Biohome filter media does perfectly but even with such good media there are limitations and we recommend the following amounts for different stocking scenarios: (1 US Gallon = 3.8 litres) (1kg = 2.2 lbs) Average community tropical aquarium = 1kg per 100 litres Average coldwater aquarium = 1kg - 1.5kg per 100 litres Predator aquarium = 1.5kg - 2kg per 100 litres Large cichlid aquarium = 1.5kg - 2kg per 100 litres Malawi / Tanganyikan aquarium = 1.5kg - 2kg per 100 litres Marine aquarium = 1.5kg - 2kg per 100 litres Average mixed fish pond = 1kg per 200 litres Average koi pond = 1kg per 150 litres
You may be disagreeing with the above figures but remember that they are for a FULL CYCLE not half a job - achieving 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite is quite easy since aerobic bacteria grows freely on any surface but the anaerobic bacteria responsible for COMPLETING the cycle needs more a specialized habitat. I'm no 'expert' and we all are on a long path of learning.......use your own common sense to see what is true and what is nonsense.
Some of the links above may be to my affiliate programs on Amazon and Ebay so they will throw a few pennies my way if you make a purchase - it costs you nothing extra and helps towards keeping the lights on in my bunker.
AI Generated·May contain errors
Okay, hello, welcome back. This is BioRock.
It's basically a better version of the
experimental thing that were turned out
a few months ago called BioHome Coral. That was in
little thin plates.
Let me just show you.
That was it. It was nowhere near
Now later in this video I may make a few mistakes
and actually call this bio home coral.
as varied as this stuff.
The name going forward will be bio rock
because it is basically a man-made rock. It's made from
100% natural materials.
It provides a perfect surface area for bacteria to colonize
outside and inside. If you've got
a marine tank it's perfect for corals to adhere to and grow
So if you go on here, you've basically got
It's something that works better than live rock,
but with none of the risks.
You're not going to bring any pests in, this is totally sterile.
A nation of different forms that it comes in,
different colours that are available.
Another huge benefit of it is that it only weighs about 50%
50%!
of the weight of a rock you'd say dig out of your garden or something.
So it's not going to add masses of weight to your aquarium
and I know for some of you guys out there
who have your aquariums in upstairs room that is a real concern.
Now this is going to come in two different weight boxes.
So we're going to have five kilos which is 10,
god what's, is that 11 pounds? Yes that's 11 pounds
for you guys in the US
or they're going to come in 10 kilos which is 22 pounds.
And just for reference that is a five kilo box.
Every piece is individually wrapped, in fact it's
double wrapped so that it can't get smashed up in transit.
So that's a five kilo box, obviously
there's another box which is the 10 kilo box
which is a little bit bigger but they're packaged exactly
the same way. There you go,
that's one of the flatter pieces
and that's arrived in good condition.
As you can see, it looks a lot more natural now.
It basically just looks like natural volcanic rock that's just
been farted out of a volcano and made its way into the sea
and kind of settled in these shapes, you know?
And this structure you see before you there is made up
of five kilos of the media, well, of the bio-home coral rock.
And every one is different.
Rearrange sees a totally different effect.
As you can see, we can do it in various colours as well.
So all sorts of shapes and all sorts of colours.
This one is exactly the same mix as the BioHome Ultimate,
hence it's got like an orangey-red colour.
That one is exactly the same mix as the BioHome Ultra,
so it's grey.
This one is exactly the same mix
as the BioHome Ultimate Marine,
so this one's got the trace elements in
specific to the marine bacteria.
And that one is like an earthy sort of browny colour.
And then we've got one which is made from the mix
which is used to make the bio gravel.
So that one's similar to this, but it has like a, well,
more like a grey, purpley, browny sort of appearance.
It's quite a funny shade, but it does look very natural.
You've seen the set up with the grey.
I've got...
Five kilos here of the red and also five kilos of the brown
so I'll do another little arrangement
and bring you back in for a look.
But first we'll just have a close-up on those rocks
and the colours and Michael
was good enough to cut this one in half
with a saw so you can have a look in there at the structure
and in a minute
I'll show
you just
how porous
this is. A
very quick
setup with
the red
version.
Another
one.
And that's a bigger setup with the brown version.
So there you go, you've seen how easy it is to set it up
and get it looking pretty good inside a tank.
I'm gonna take this bit, it's been cut in half,
and dip it in blue dye so you can see
just how porous this stuff is.
As you can see, it's absolutely bone dry.
So it should wick the water into it very well
and obviously if the water gets right inside the
structure the water will carry nutrients to the bacteria
which will colonize every piece of every
piece of this bio rock. Obviously this is filmed in real time
so there's no shenanigans. See where
it's been cut with a still saw.
I'm just going to dip the tip in here. You should be able to see
It's making its way up there.
Quite well.
Yeah I suppose I really should
be be talking whilst it's doing this just so you can see that
there's no speed ups or whatever.
Yes my hand is shaking a little bit because it's absolutely
freezing in this back room. So the water
is colonising this bit of rock quite well. Have a
look around the corner. Most of the way up.
How's this side doing? Yep it's getting there as well.
Slowly spreading through so you've got full transit
of water through the structure of this rock and the
transit of the water is very slow
so that leads to the conditions inside the rock
or indeed inside the bio home media in all
its various forms it renders it capable of
harboring a hell of a lot of anaerobic bacteria
in a perfectly safe environment.
It's not like a deep sand bed where you need to disturb it now
and again to stop any toxins building up.
That just doesn't happen with this rock or with the biohome media.
It's pretty much done now.
There's a little bit that it hasn't got to yet.
Just leave them standing there.
Then I'm sure it'll get up there.
You can see it's just reducing that little space as we speak.
That's pretty much it.
And now that's got
a lot more weight to it.
And here's the other half to that piece which was cut with the saw.
Again, just dunk them in.
Water flies up.
Obviously, when it's immersed in water, it gets water right
into the core of it within seconds, you know, perfectly porous.
Now, as far as the internal structures of various filter medias go...
I actually did a video on that, oh man,
maybe it's two or three years ago,
where I used a small USB microscope and looked inside filter media.
That is one of the most
important videos that I've ever done and it's got a close-up of,
well, it was the BioHome Ultra,
so it's exactly the same structure as this.
I'll link to that video in the video description.
In that video, I think you can see two
or three different types of the bio-home.
There's some ceramic rings, that cheap Chinese stuff.
There's some pumice. It's actually good quality pumice.
And the difference between the internal structures
of all the different type of media is massive.
But it's something that people just don't ever look into.
I mean, I haven't seen one other YouTube channel just take
a little USB microscope, which costs pennies, and have a look.
the media that they're claiming is the best stuff ever.
If they did, they would get a shock and it
would expose that it's probably scrap.
This is the real deal, you know. I wouldn't, well, I wouldn't
be involved with it if it wasn't.
It's basically nature just remoulded. And before I go, I should
really just add another huge positive point to this rock,
this BioWa rock, and that is that you're not
You're not funding.
The destruction of natural marine environments when you buy this.
It's basically just made from
various particles of sand, which is quartz sand,
powdered glass, a few trace elements,
binding agents, which are all natural.
A lot of it's recycled as well. A lot of it is actually
recycled glass. The powdered glass that's used
to fuse the little bits together is from recycling
plants. So when you buy this,
not only are you not destroying natural marine environments, which
Perversely you're trying to create in your tank
but you're also supporting recycling plants in
this country so it's a win-win really you know you've got something
that is perfect for the
environment that you're creating supports aerobic
and anaerobic bacteria basically does the job of
live rock and it'll function for years
in a safe environment corals will grow on it or if you've got
Freshwater tank. Java moss will just colonize this.
Oh, actually, tell you what, talking of
plants colonizing this material, I've been experimenting with some,
It's um...
oh god, not sprouting seeds, what do you call them? Micro green seeds.
And Michael was good enough to make me a couple of plates up.
Made of the BioHome material so we'll go down to the greenhouse
and I'll show you that but if
anybody's not interested in that I'll just say
that this will very soon be available on the
FilterPro website. FilterPro website is linked
to in the video description and in the pinned comment
and if you've got good eyesight you'll probably
be able to read that behind me and it also has
links to all the different main distributors in the world.
They're the ones to use.
Because you'll get the best prices from them.
So all the flags at the top of every page
on the FilterPro site is a direct link to those distributors.
So please use your local distributor.
I realise I've probably just given away 10-15% of my trade there.
But I'd rather you guys just got a good deal on the media
and also now on the BioRock.
Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.
Okay, so that's red clover seed.
Which I just scattered on top of the BioHome plate there.
You can see how well that's grown on there.
That's basically the effect you're going to get
in a tropical aquarium with your Java moss.
