What are your thoughts on Grid Filters?

[WheatToast]

Note: I do not intend to use one on my current system, but I might consider them for a smaller project.

Lately, I have seen these “Grid Filters” doing the rounds in the freshwater hobby. Though their capacity and flow rate would likely be quite low, they seem like an interesting way to incorporate a wide variety of filter media, macroalgae, and plants (such as Mangroves) in a visually appealing manner. What do you guys think about using these in the marine hobby?

 

[MrMreef]

 

[MrMreef]

Joke aside - it's the same concept as a sump really; just with more compartments. A baffled refugium is a cool idea though.

 

[WheatToast]

Joke aside - it's the same concept as a sump really; just with more compartments. A baffled refugium is a cool idea though.

In fact, maybe it could act as a sump for smaller displays without the room .

 

[WheatToast]

Bump

 

[brandon429]

not needed in reefing, all that surface area is a car with 6 steering wheels. freshwater maybe, and looks cool, but six pounds of live rock beats all that in surface area so the extra expense isn't measurable or beneficial in the reef tank unless its adsorbing media like gfo etc.


ammonia control needs no help, that's all setup for ammonia above.

 

[WheatToast]

Bump

 

[mdb_talon]

I honestly think they are awesome. Would love to have an 8 foot long one behind my frag tank.

I dont need it. It is not the most efficient option. In my opinion though looks pretty neat and would be a good way to grow various macroalgaes and keep them seperate.

 

[WheatToast]

Bump

 

[WheatToast]

Bump

 

[WheatToast]

Bump

 

[blaxsun]

The only thing I see is that cleaning and maintaining a setup like this would be a major PITA. These pictures and videos always highlight the pristine "before" shots - not "after" several months of neglect when you want to basically throw a tarp over it.

 

[WheatToast]

Bump

 

[WheatToast]

Bump

 

[hhaase]

HUh, I might have to grab one of those for my 15 gallon freshwater cube. Right now I've got an aquaclear but it's really just functioning as a powered sponge. Could run it for some upper plans, kinda like a freshwater frag tank.

-Hans

 

[MabuyaQ]

not needed in reefing, all that surface area is a car with 6 steering wheels. freshwater maybe, and looks cool, but six pounds of live rock beats all that in surface area so the extra expense isn't measurable or beneficial in the reef tank unless its adsorbing media like gfo etc.


ammonia control needs no help, that's all setup for ammonia above.

This will actually beat liverock, because the smaller the mediasize the more surface area it will have pound for pound.

 

[brandon429]

Use for qt then sounds applicable?

 

[brandon429]

what I mean is live rock isn't shy of any action so we wouldnt run those above in a display unless you want to pack gfo in for example, and you want gfo anywhere near your reef.

to replace live rock, yes that or a ten dollar wal mart hob are able. that one looks much nicer, you put that on an office tank and you're getting way more desk view counts for sure.

*I know extra surface area isn't harmful, pretty much any reef here is using 3x the amount of live rock needed to carry their whole display...we depend on these ratio bets everytime we remove 1/3rd of someone's rock as a scape redo during removal of their entire sandbed all at once (same fish go back in, a larger instant bioload presentation to the leftover surface area given zero time to ramp up more bac)

adding that filter set above to a system orders redundantly packed with surface area is a .00001 addition.

 

[WheatToast]

This will actually beat liverock, because the smaller the mediasize the more surface area it will have pound for pound.

True, but the grid filter has such a low capacity, even 6 pounds of live rock would probably win.

 

[WheatToast]

Bump