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If one is absolutely enamored of the ceramic media approach expanded clay pebbles are a cheap way to go.

Seachem Matrix is a “natural rock” product that is heavily marketed by Seachem as a supposedly extremely good media to be put into aquarium filters. Matrix is NOT good media for aquarium filters

There is a huge amount of misinformation out there about the efficiency of ceramic media. Ceramics are NOT good media for aquarium filters.

There is a product that used to be available over the internet which was occasionally used as a biomedia. It was called “Growstone”. The name was changed to “Buddystone” in 2019

Lava rock has a very convoluted surface which we initially thought would mean it must be doubled in surface area calculations. This turned out not to be true for aquarium filtration.

Pot Scrubbers in the Aquarium have the best combination of biofiltration capability, ease of use and availability of any biomedia

Bio balls have a moderately low surface area which makes them one of the less efficient biomedia for submerged filters

PP EVA Pads for Aquarium Filters came out quite surprisingly well in the aquarium filter media test. We suspect Matala Pads will perform better than Japanese Mats.

Small aquarium gravel turns out to be a reasonably good filter media. If one fills a canister with bags of cheap aquarium gravel the canister will be a much better filter than say a canister filled with expensive ceramic media.