Blog 18/12/11

Several who read this website are now asking me how we go about cleaning the EricMat blocks in the Eric units because they say they need to clean their media chambers regularly.

If anyone gets a build up of fine dust/debris on the top of filter mat or indeed on the top of ANY other biological media which needs to be cleaned off from time to time then that’s a PERFECT example showing that the areas where the dust is collecting are also the areas that have NO water flow at all which also means those surfaces also hold NO biomass!

The dust that forms on the surfaces of the media has been forming in single or multi-chamber filters for as long as I can recall.

It’s nothing to do with filter mat, it could be alfagrog or flocor or even gravel but it only takes place in upward-flow chambers so please do bear this in mind.

It’s commonly known as ‘tracking’ and it occurs in all upward-flow boxes, heavily aerated or not, of course the dust will not settle in heavily-aerated units but do bear in mind, the tracking still remains.

The simple reason why EricMat will never become dirty – (and I had it made in a colour which easily shows up dirt to prove the point) – is simply because all the surfaces are getting a constant flow of water and these very fine particles of dust simply pass through, which is proof that all surfaces are also biologically active!

No one will ever have to clean EricMat blocks because they will never get dirty as users will confirm!

Waddy