Polyfilter Use
- Thread starter j tavares
- Start date
luther1200
Premium Member
I doubt it, once you buy a real Polyfilter you will see the difference right away. They are very stiff, and totally different than other pads. The only 1 that is similar IMO is the PURAfilter pads. But I don't like the PURA pads.
LouH
LouH
I just started using the stuff in an attempt to capture some mysterious, unmeasureable compound in my water that has been responsible for poor coloration in my Acros and Montis. I've placed a 4"X8" piece in my sump's bubble trap, adn they only last about a week before turning an ugly brown color. I treid to clean it out in the sink, but the brown color was not from captured particles. The material had turned brown. A pad a week is a bit expensive. Maybe it is an indication that my skimmer isn't getting it done or I need to run Ozone. What do you think?
Real Polyfilters are a specific brand. They come in 4x8 inch and 12x12 inch. They also used to make small discs to fit in a columnar water purifier, but I don't think these are still available. Polyfilters are chemical, NOT mechanical filters, and using them to trap debris is a foolish waste of a useful and expensive product. I buy only the 12x12 size, because it is more chemically active and used in some medical applications. I cut sections that fit under my trickle filter return system, placed under a 100 micron particle prefilter that can be cleaned with bleach and reused. Polyfilters cannot be regenerated. Mine last about a week to 10 days before they get dark enough to discard. The recyclable 100 micron felt pads are replaced every other day.
The best price I can get for a 12X12 Polyfilter (by PolyBioMarine) is just under $20, and that's because years ago I was in the fish business and know some local wholesalers. Regular retail is about $30 mail order, more in local shops..
The 4x8 pads can be as cheap as $5, but are not as efficient. The 12x12s pull out a long list of pollutants, ammonia, solvents, nitrates, nitrites, heavy metals, and many of the biological and metabolic waste products of marine life. They are not a miracle filter, but work very well, and will strip the copper out of a treated tank faster than any other product I have used. You can watch the pads turn progressively less blue, until all the added copper is gone. It's an excellent colorometric indicator.
There are no legitimate off brand competitors that I am aware of.
The best price I can get for a 12X12 Polyfilter (by PolyBioMarine) is just under $20, and that's because years ago I was in the fish business and know some local wholesalers. Regular retail is about $30 mail order, more in local shops..
The 4x8 pads can be as cheap as $5, but are not as efficient. The 12x12s pull out a long list of pollutants, ammonia, solvents, nitrates, nitrites, heavy metals, and many of the biological and metabolic waste products of marine life. They are not a miracle filter, but work very well, and will strip the copper out of a treated tank faster than any other product I have used. You can watch the pads turn progressively less blue, until all the added copper is gone. It's an excellent colorometric indicator.
There are no legitimate off brand competitors that I am aware of.
Do you mean patent, or trademark. They have very different meanings. If it is a patent, nobody else can produce this so long as the product is protected by the patent (patent has not expired), or at least nobody can produce it without permission from the company in which case they would pay royalties. On the other hand a trademark just protects the name brand. Like Coca-Cola or Pepsi, nobody can make a product and call it Coca-cola without infringing on the trademark. But if someone were to develop a formula that is identical to Coca-Cola he could sell it (being that the formula is not protected by a patent), just under a different name.
