Those Clay Balls For Hydroponics As A Media?

The ones like these:




They sound like they are basically designed to do much the same thing as bio-media does, mainly the exact same, at least in part - house the beneficial bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. And they are supposed to be very porous as well.

So are these viable alternative to things like ceramic rings, matrix, sintered glass media, etc.? Conversely, could those latter things but used in hydroponics since they seem to do much the same thing? If not, why is a clay ball good for hydroponics, but not for an aquarium, whereas a ceramic ring is good for an aquarium but bad for hydroponics?

Thanks!

 

I've used them for years in my canister.
No problems occured.

 

I used clay balls in my plenum .The package said they could be used fully submersed with a pump to create filtering ??

I believe they are much like any other media and safe and effective .

 

yep. ive used them in hydroponics before and they are very good at wicking which means they have some porousity to them. not sure how they are vs ceramic. just make sure to rinse them before use as they to have a dust on them that will cloud your tank.

 

Homeslice. Did you ever get the clay media ?

 

I have 3 huge bags of those I got before moving on to Vermiculite #8. So now I need to make a plant room.
If you rinse prefilters or other filter media out in RO and then pour the hydroponic sintered clay balls all in, you can draw them down in a vacuum chamber to get them to not float (same with vermiculite #8). You will need a mesh to place on top with a weight to hold them under when you do this. .

CORRECTION: I meant perlite not vermiculite.

 

Homeslice. Did you ever get the clay media ?

I sure did Vic! Picture below. The other picture is of some "expanded shale" I got, also used in hydro/aqua culture I hear. Thinking of putting them in a small breeder hang on and adding some green veggies to it from outside, like collard greens, spinach, etc. I want to eventually have no-water-change tanks haha! All ears if you have any other ideas.

 

No pics ? They didnt go through I guess.

 

Sorry Vic, I have a habit of saying I'm going to post pics immediately below then totally forgetting haha.