Ultimate Filter Media (1 LB) Premium Aquarium & Pond Filtration

Best filter media ever! I found out about this stuff on YouTube. Know one in the US was really using it on even talking about it. It was really big in Europe though. So I tried it in both of my canister filters. I put it in all of the trays except for the bottom tray (filter pads in bottom tray). My nitrates and nitrites were at zero in 3 and half weeks in my heavily stocked/planted freshwater 55 gal starter aquarium. The employees at petsmart and the owner of my local aquarium shop were amazed and in disbelief with my water samples from today. The aquarium shop owner is going to try it in a few of his test aquariums 1st. He said that he has been in this business since 85 and ain't never seen any product on the market that worked like this. I'll ask him for an update about a month from now. The 3 employees at petsmart started googling it right awawy cause they thought that they knew everything about filter media. They hadn't even heard of my Oase BioMaster Thermo Canister filter, and didn't believe it existed either.

As seen on my photo, 2lbs of Biohome can fill up to 2 trays of my Fluval 407 when arranged vertically. The ceramic bio rings that Fluval came with is significantly lesser. So I just used the bio rings to top off 2 trays of Biohome. I used coarse and fine polishing sponges in the bottom tray, then Biohome and ceramic rings in the next 2 trays, then lastly Purigen and Poly-fil in the top tray. My water stayed Crystal clear! Even after putting in my driftwood, it sucked up the tannins overnight :) as far as cycling my new fishless 55gal tank, it took me almost 1.5 months to fully cycle. Though it may be expensive, I'd say its still worth it in the long run :)

I am checking out it's performance. It works well so far

Absolutely excellent filter media...significantly better than the generic stock media that comes with every canister filter.

If you read the information from the YouTuber in the UK who was involved in the development of Biohome, all the recommendations are based on kilograms of product. I purchased a SunSun HW-3000 canister filter. I planned on using it on a 40 gallon tank, using the variable speed feature of the filter to reduce the water flow to a suitable value. In his review of the filter Pondguru recommended using foam pads in the bottom tray and then filling the top three trays with with 5 kilograms of Biohome Ultimate. That is about 11 pounds of media. That works out out to about $225 worth of Biohome Ultimate at Amazon USA pricing. That is nearly twice the cost of the SunSun HW-3000 filter itself.I only purchased 5 pounds of media rather than the 5 kilograms (11 pounds) recommended for the filter. However, since I will be using it on a 40 gallon tank at less than the maximum flow rate of the filter, I hope it works. I know I have plenty of media for nitrifying bacteria activity, but that could have been achieved with far less expensive media.However, I do not know if 5# will be sufficient to achieve nitrate reduction. It was not quite enough to fill up two of the three trays in the filter.The manufacturer indicates that it can take 4-6 months of use before sufficient anaerobic bacteria will grow deep in the pores of the Biohome before you start to notice any denitrification. Thus, I won't know if the expensive media was worth it for many months to come.The media contains a lot of "brick dust" when received, so be sure to rinse the media thoroughly, but since the media is so porous, you should not rinse it in tap water as that could leave chlorine deep in the pores and affect colonization by beneficial bacteria.

I got 4 pounds of BioHome Ultimate for a 55 gallon tank with a foot long koi and a 4 inch fan tailed gold fish and I'm very impressed with it. With the over feeding thanks to my two kids that love to feed the fish and the fact the tank is too small for the dirty fish I have I've had issues keeping the water in spec. This stuff completely stopped my fish from flashing and dropped the ammonia levels to zero. I still cannot make it a full 7 days without a partial water change but nothing a biological filter can do for that as it is the nitrate that goes too high now. This stuff is super easy to clean off even if the mechanical filtration fails to grab the big stuff, I see no reason I would need to replace this for the life of my tank.

I changed my Fluval 205 filter media to this instead. One bag filled two baskets very tightly. My water quality is nice and fish seems happy.

I like Biohome Ultimate but you have to use the quantity recommended for nitrate reduction and give it time. I have 2.5 kg on my heavily stocked 55 gallon. After one year I can't say I'm getting zero nitrates (with 25% pwc weekly) but nitrates are well controlled and never exceed 30-40 ppm. I'm increasing the quantity of Biohome Ultimate to 4 kg to see if I get a further reduction. Also, buy your Biohome directly through Great Wave Engineering as its half the price and customer service is excellent. See their web site for info on quantity of Biohome to use which depends on your stocking level. Don't buy a canister filter based on size of your tank but rather on your stocking level.