Aquarium filter accessories Sintomec

The quality of the filter material largely determines the effectiveness of an aquarium filter! Most aquarium filters are already equipped with sponges as filter media. Sponges have a fairly large surface that, over time, will be colonised by beneficial bacteria for breaking down pollutants. To increase the efficiency of a filter, one can replace the sponges with a special filter media made of sintered glass (JBL SintoMec and JBL MicroMec). The sintered glass media has a surface area about 10 times greater than that of sponges, providing even more space for bacteria to break down pollutants in the aquarium water. In the automotive world, this would be referred to as "tuning" = more performance! What is sintered glass? If you melt (sinter) very small glass beads, it results in a large piece of glass. However, if you first mix the glass beads with salt, the resulting piece of glass will be lined with salt. When washed afterwards, countless tiny channels will be created in the glass. The sintered glass filter media from JBL therefore has a gigantic (internal) surface that can be colonised by bacteria which decompose pollutants. Nitrate breakdown: nitrates are only broken down into nitrogen gas by bacteria in the absence of oxygen and in the presence of carbon (C). This process (denitrification) can occur under ideal conditions within the sintered glass media JBL SintoMec and JBL MicroMec. When is the JBL MicroMec useful and when is the JBL SintoMec? For smaller filter volumes, the smaller media JBL MicroMec will be the best fit due to space constraints. For larger volumes, due in part to the higher water flow, a coarser media with holes, like the JBL SintoMec, will be more suitable. The finer material of the JBL MicroMec might clog up faster.