crushed ceramic pool filter media as packing

[higgins]

In response to a post of mine in the 'What'd y'all make today?' thread, shadylane said:

First time I've heard of doing that, and it sounds like a good idea.
Ya need to start a new topic about crushed media in the Column Builds section.

So here it is.

My first two runs (CCVM) I was using about 600g of these whole, with half a roll of copper mesh each at the bottom and the top. The best I got was about 93.5%. Being a newb I thought that was pretty good, but was promptly informed that I could do better (thanks for you all telling me that). Using a hammer with rather light blows, I crushed it and put it back in the column. Now it only filled it about 60%, so I crushed some more and added it. I ended up using right at 1kg, and my third run netted 95%+ and tasted much cleaner.
Here's what it looks like after crushing (you can see two of them uncrushed at the top of the photo - 1/2" long by 1/2" dia):

crushed_media.jpg

And Geoff (The Baker) said:

Found them on the interweb for $25 Australian per kg.
Another, $120 for 10 kg.

There were also ceramic balls of various sizes which could be interesting
(an alternative to marbles maybe and could be cheaper and maybe lighter.)
(And may not need smashing.)

I bought this about a 18 months ago. 5 lbs (2.25 kg) for under $20 USD:
https://www.amazon.com/AQUACITY-Premier ... GF2CU&th=1
I checked on www.amazon.com.au and could not find it.