# Seachem Matrix (biomedia)



## fish_luva (Nov 24, 2009)

Hi folks,
Not sure if this is the correct place for this post but i'm looking for the seachem "matrix" biomedia. Went to big Als in whitby to see if they carry it and they don't. So i'm wondering if anyone knows or has seen it and how much and what size is around..... 
thanks all
sheldon​


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 21, 2007)

fish_luva said:


> Hi folks,Not sure if this is the correct place for this post but i'm looking for the seachem "matrix" biomedia. Went to big Als in whitby to see if they carry it and they don't. So i'm wondering if anyone knows or has seen it and how much and what size is around.....
> thanks all
> sheldon​


I think I got mine from mops.ca They are located in Hamilton but they ship for pretty cheap.

Harry


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## fish_luva (Nov 24, 2009)

Thanks Harry,,,, never even thought about them.. good idea, i would spend that much probobly travelling from whitby to any stores that do carry it.....
cheers!!!!!


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## fish_luva (Nov 24, 2009)

*seachem matrix biomedia 1 liter $15.99 BA's online*

So no one else knows where you can purchase the Seachem Matrix bio-media 1 liter size? Anyone selling these through their own businesses? 
thank-you
sheldon


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Ehfisubstrat pro is better IMO. You could also pretty much make your own matrix for about 2 cents on the dollar by buying some 'credit valley' sandstone at betz and taking a hammer to it.


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## fish_luva (Nov 24, 2009)

AquariAM said:


> Ehfisubstrat pro is better IMO. You could also pretty much make your own matrix for about 2 cents on the dollar by buying some 'credit valley' sandstone at betz and taking a hammer to it.


Good idea Aquarium,,,, i've seen that mentioned before. I've got lots of little filters and some eheims i want to fill with bio and to be honest, I know the eheim product is good but it's also very pricey to buy a lot of that. 
I will check out the idea of the sandstone and give it a shot in one of my filters to see how it works.
Cheers!!!!
sheldon


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## Russgro (Apr 14, 2010)

j&l aquatics or BA online.


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## fish_luva (Nov 24, 2009)

thanks Russgro, will check out Jl aquatics for sure as well as mops... i know BA's online has it, but would personally rather not do that one.....
thanks
sheldon


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/DKIMAGES/Discover/previews/1054/45007255.JPG

http://cse.f3images.com/IMD/feeds/SC3175_50.jpg

The sandstone or orthoquartzite or whatever it is at Betz isn't pink. When you smash it up with a hammer it looks and feels identical to the original Eheim Ehfisubstrat, which is sintered glass. Ehfisubstrat is a natural version of that, it's quartz with silica holding the little grains together. A normal cheap hammer is all you need. Just put a bunch of it in a cloth bag and beat the crapp out of it for a few minutes and you have biomedia. (you may want to use a heavier duty hammer if you want a lot of it, because it can become tedious) I've done this and it works. You get a lot of 'rock dust' at the bottom but you're still saving like 98% of the money by volume.

I have a giant box of this stuff at home... I'll never use it all. If you want some and you're around East York PM me and I'll give you like 10lbs of it.


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## fish_luva (Nov 24, 2009)

Heh... thanks aquariam, I'll send you a pm for sure.... 
cheers!!!!


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

> The sandstone or orthoquartzite or whatever it is at Betz isn't pink. When you smash it up with a hammer it looks and feels identical to the original Eheim Ehfisubstrat, which is sintered glass. Ehfisubstrat is a natural version of that, it's quartz with silica holding the little grains together. A normal cheap hammer is all you need. Just put a bunch of it in a cloth bag and beat the crapp out of it for a few minutes and you have biomedia. (you may want to use a heavier duty hammer if you want a lot of it, because it can become tedious) I've done this and it works. You get a lot of 'rock dust' at the bottom but you're still saving like 98% of the money by volume.


Hey AquarIAM, does the sandstone change water parameters? PH, KH, etc?


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

I could totally use some biomedia, AquariAM, if the offer is open. 

W


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

KhuliLoachFan said:


> I could totally use some biomedia, AquariAM, if the offer is open.
> 
> W


If you want some you're welcome to it. I should mention though that it is a PITA... You're looking at a good hour to produce 5-10lbs of 'ehfisubstrat (original)' size chunks. Once you get there, it's about the same thing, but it's a bit of a torturous process. I made a bunch of 1-2" cube rubble for the bottom of my tang tank and it was not a good time.

If you're ok with that, you can have some of my sandstone 

ARC- the closest thing I can find to this stuff in descriptions of rocks are meta and orthoquartzite. In both cases it's mainly little grains of quarts with silica molecules gluing them together. It's basically glass crystals. They don't have any effect on your water chemistry. AFAIK, any rockyou put in your tank will affect TDS a few parts per million.. be it quartz or granite or limestone or shale or whatever. Any rock will give off a tiny bit of 'rock powder'. This sandstone stuff has absolutely no measurable effect on kH or pH though. It has a very faint smell sort of like a bag of silica sand.


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## Flazky (Jan 9, 2010)

I actually have a bottle of extra matrix if you want it. I bought too much haha.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

> ARC- the closest thing I can find to this stuff in descriptions of rocks are meta and orthoquartzite. In both cases it's mainly little grains of quarts with silica molecules gluing them together. It's basically glass crystals. They don't have any effect on your water chemistry. AFAIK, any rockyou put in your tank will affect TDS a few parts per million.. be it quartz or granite or limestone or shale or whatever. Any rock will give off a tiny bit of 'rock powder'. This sandstone stuff has absolutely no measurable effect on kH or pH though. It has a very faint smell sort of like a bag of silica sand.


Sweet, well looks I'll be hammering some out this weekend for the HOB. If anyone is interested its 0.49/lb at BETZ. Get the credit valley stuff though, I also bought some Indianna sandstone which they told me is limestone at BETZ.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Dont use too much in an HOB. It's too heavy.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

Will do, I'm just using enough to fill 1/3 of a HOB. The rest will be floss


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

arc said:


> Will do, I'm just using enough to fill 1/3 of a HOB. The rest will be floss


I wouldn't bother. Better off going (in an aquaclear excluding 110/500) sponge sponge bio. Using floss isn't necessary given the tight spaces between the sandstone and the amount of goo that will build up on it. You'll get a similar water polishing effect without the need for the floss. I don't polish water. I honestly find that a well balanced tank where you let algae do what it wants and keep a large biofilter colony properly there's nothing to polish.


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

> I wouldn't bother. Better off going (in an aquaclear excluding 110/500) sponge sponge bio. Using floss isn't necessary given the tight spaces between the sandstone and the amount of goo that will build up on it. You'll get a similar water polishing effect without the need for the floss. I don't polish water. I honestly find that a well balanced tank where you let algae do what it wants and keep a large biofilter colony properly there's nothing to polish.


I hammered the stone to 1" pieces today... a lot easier than I feared. I've got about 10 lbs of it now. I've got an Aquaon 30 (200GPH) and using the cartridge without the carbon (removed it after a few weeks). 
http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/ctl3664/cp30226/si2580167/cl0/aqueoncartridgelarge3pack

The stones are in a bucket of water and I'm going to test the ph tomorrow to double check it doesn't change anything and add some of it to the HOB while removing some of the floss. Hopefully all goes well.


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