Fluval Bio-FX review - Is it worth it? 4 months of use.

[@kellycasperhanson4426]

❤I love Bentley's reviews because of his vast experience combined with his total honesty. It makes the product reviews believable. He knows what works (or doesn't work), and he won't fudge the results to please ANY company. Although Fluval Bio-Fx sounds like a great product, I think I'll pass on it, just based on cost. I've used cheap-o Home Depot lava rock in all my HOBS for years, and it gets the job done. (I also use sponge filters.) Because I have a lot of tanks, and I don't use any cannister filters, lava rock just makes the most financial sense for my situation (retired). Another nice thing about lava rock is it hardly breaks down AT ALL. I don't get much sandy debris in my HOBS even after years of use. Lava rock certainly won't impress anybody, but you can't argue with success😊. 🤗 Thank you, Bentley.

[@tomp8442]

This guy is actually a reasonable person. A true aquarist. Good vid, sub and liked!

[@AquariumFun-sy2jt]

I've seen experiments where ammonia is directly added to water and observations are made about how much of that ammonia can be processed by various media. That would be an interesting experiment to repeat (in 5 gallon buckets, without fish :) ). I suppose the more efficient media would allow you to use less of it and dedicate more of your filter to mechanical filtration (or use a smaller filter).

[@olivierpelland1027]

Always found that a good deep substrate does the job. I had deep substrate and biohome in all my filter. I slowly removed biohome and now just has deep substrate and sponge in my FX6 and my Nitrate remain at 0 - 5 even woth a 16" common pleco, Oscar and other big fish.

[@garysoutar451]

Ceramic rings made me laugh. Being using the same batch of Fluvals for over 20years. I boil them every two years.too clean the pores out. They last for years. Don't use the bag. 😉 Over kill didn't kill the Fish.

[@MrRenoman2011]

Thanks Bentley awesome video

[@michaelhuff8218]

I think that you missed how the "media" works to house the bacteria. It is on the SURFACE of the media. When a cheapo ring breaks there is now more surface area exposed. And most important there is more surface area exposed to the water stream. Even if the bio fx has more surface area, there will not be much flow through the media. For this reason I prefer media like a sponge filter. In a given volume you can get more surface area with a compressed sponge; and you will get good flow. This will also trap large pieces of detritus that I can rinse out when I service the canister.

[@AquariumFun-sy2jt]

Bentley, thank you. I always enjoy your videos! :)

[@leo2o915]

Always releasing the videos when I’m looking for it 😂

[@tjautocross]

Love the reviews, Bentley!!! Thanks so much.

[@davidolsen3209]

Thanks for the follow up on this product. Preciate it

[@ericmicheal7186]

😮 I have been using bio FX for about 6 months now on one of my tanks 40 gallon heavily planted good amount of fish with substrate and I have had more problems with it stopping preforming cause it get clogged with debris and stops working have had multiple ammonia spikes lost a few fish thank god I had the QT tank to get them out of the tank and that tank has matrix never had a problem in a fluval 70 but it takes about week to get it back going after completely cleaning every pellet to best I could then week later it starts doing its thing and good for about 2 months then I have to do it again and by the way those seachem ammonia alerts do work (cause at first I thought they were junk cause mostly everything from seachem is over priced crap or the same as the cheaper brand) but that save my butt once I saw it was changing colors then api test to confirm and I was in the danger zone finally gave up went back to fluval ceramic rings and took about 48 hours started working and been just over a month and no problems since I go arid of bio-fx

[@BentleyPascoe]

I have yet to have any issues running for a year now, but I do have very good fine sponge keep it protected and maintenance regularly

[@aarondavis8224]

Pets mart has it on sale buy one get one 50% off. I paid $35 for 10 liters of media. This is about the same price as generic cheap Amazon media. If its more durable I'm glad I made the decision to get it

[@johnmaude5065]

I love the Fluval Fx media, for the size of the box I think it’s very cheap, I’m using it my FX and 07 filters with Seachem matrix on separate trays 😊 Great video Bentley 👍

[@FinGardensProductions]

I have had good luck with the hygger double sponge filter that sticks to the glass had two sponges and bio media. I also run a tial 55 on the 29 as a polishing filter mainly even though it cane with matrix. Injust dont use it. Tank has been very stable and set up over a year

[@TheWalk23]

I've found that Nitrates are lower over an extended time frame with the Fluval FX

[@markstevenson5056]

Thank you Bentley

[@carljewell5536]

I put the whole box in 2 trays of the marineland 360 I like it so far for the price. I definitely wont be changing it out every 6 months like it calls for I see no reason to.

[@galacticnemesis366]

It’s my understanding that water flow is the main factor when it comes to aerobic and anaerobic bacteria therefore it would make sense to me that it would be possible to have certain levels of both bacteria colonising some forms of media except the aerobic would be more likely to colonise the outside part that see higher water flow and it’s possible to have some levels of anaerobic colonising closer to the centre of each piece of media where water flow is slightly more restricted. I could be wrong but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Based on that it would be interesting to see how a combination of Seachem Matrix and Fluval BioFX the logic being that because Matrix has some larger and smaller pieces that it would fill the gaps between the larger format of the BioFX.

[@RaulsAquaticsandReptiles]

Great review 👍🏽

[@robertnemeth6248]

I have seen results for Biohome Ultimate that show a full cycle and show anaerobic bacteria activity. In my 407 I use Bio FX, then Biohome the Matrix....

[@BentleyPascoe]

Do you have plants in that tank?. If not, I would love to see data that shows proper denitrification from that media. I've yet to see any data but I will eventually run my own test just cuz. I'm curious if it can do what it claims.

[@slickchick5811]

**Explodes day 1 after 6 months. BOOM!!**

[@EpicConspiracy]

All the different media are literally the same by a small percentage. It doesn’t matter what you use.

[@NameName-do9hj]

Thanks I think i have maybe 10 diff ceramic media in my Canisters , only replacing it when it breaks over the years Sure i never buy realy cheap rings but i couldn't say one is better than the other But all my tanks have been running for years so bacteria is everywhere ?

[@BentleyPascoe]

Yep, it's everywhere!

[@Les-OZZYTHEOSCAR]

I have a 100 gallon tank, soil topped with gravel substrate at an overall depth of 4 inches. Fx4 filter with the sponges and then filled with lava rock. Absolutely works a treat with just a very minimal trace of nitrate of around 10ppm. Who needs anything better than that ?

[@itisworthitifithelps]

Fluval recommends to change the FX aftersix moths…

[@AMNitrates]

So they can make more money.

[@RaceSmokie]

@BentleyPascoe do you know some factory which makes aquarium filters? I have one idea for outside air aquarium filter (which I have never seen till now) which I would like to see alive.

[@BentleyPascoe]

I do not, sorry.

[@RaceSmokie]

@@BentleyPascoe no prob :) ty for answering

[@jimewelsh]

How come you can't just use small pebbles? Honest question.

[@robertnemeth6248]

There are plenty of Biohome users that have stats on a successful full cycle....

[@syberspy9]

I just got a new fluval flex 15, I put this stuff on the bottom of my tank and then put biograve on top of it. Is this okay?

[@BentleyPascoe]

Should be ok

[@leo2o915]

So for my 75 planted I got 2 trays of the 407 filled with this and the media it came with should I do a third tray ?

[@BentleyPascoe]

Doubt you need to unless you have more spare to use.

[@chrisdavidson3180]

🤙👍 Algo comment

[@lewisstanley3031]

No water change and the water is perfect with an ECO tank

[@hardybryan]

Surface area is the thing we waste the most worry on when we first get into filters. It's just not that important. If you have some oversized filter like an FX4 or FX6 on a 90 gallon, the sponges in it are enough surface area for bacteria to handle your bioload with ease. Do some media have more surface area per volume? Of course. Do you actually need or benefit from this extra surface area? 99% of the time the answer is no. Unless you're massively overstocked or underfiltered (like a single medium sized HOB on a 100 gallon tank), you have enough surface area. Back when I used ceramic media, including fluval's media, I ultimately replaced it all with lava rock as it broke down and noticed no change in function. The tank has enough surface area if you're not overstocked. Worry about what works best for you doing maintenance, what makes sense for your budget, and what's going to last.