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What's in your filter?

Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Only use sponges on Aquaclears. Filter floss atop gravel in box filters.

Only places I use biomedia (rings/potscrubbers/bioballs) are in the sump on my 180 and the two canisters I'm running.

Simple and effective.
 
xny89

xny89

Administrator
Staff member
I wanted to bring this topic back up with a question.
Background: I have a Marineland 360 on my 55 gallon overstocked Mbuna tank ( 6 yellow tail aceis, 6 yellow labs, 5 rusties and 5 melonachromis and a couple of pleco's) and have it filled with the vendor supplied media, including two coarse sponges to start, followed by bagged activated carbon pellets, then bioballs, then ceramic rings, and finally, a finishing filter. I do weekly 40% to 50% water changes. Have no problems with water chemistry.

... and now, the question:

With the reading I've done on this site (great stuff), it seems that using one tray just for charcoal is not necessary given my water change frequency. Also, the polishing pads need to be mail ordered (while not that big a deal, would like to see if I can replace with something like filter floss. I was thinking of replacing the carbon in the tray with more ceramic rings, and replacing the polishing pad with filter floss. What do you think or suggest?
Thanks in advance.
 
Localzoo

Localzoo

Board of Directors
xny1989 said:
I wanted to bring this topic back up with a question.
Background: I have a Marineland 360 on my 55 gallon overstocked Mbuna tank ( 6 yellow tail aceis, 6 yellow labs, 5 rusties and 5 melonachromis and a couple of pleco's) and have it filled with the vendor supplied media, including two coarse sponges to start, followed by bagged activated carbon pellets, then bioballs, then ceramic rings, and finally, a finishing filter. I do weekly 40% to 50% water changes. Have no problems with water chemistry.

... and now, the question:

With the reading I've done on this site (great stuff), it seems that using one tray just for charcoal is not necessary given my water change frequency. Also, the polishing pads need to be mail ordered (while not that big a deal, would like to see if I can replace with something like filter floss. I was thinking of replacing the carbon in the tray with more ceramic rings, and replacing the polishing pad with filter floss. What do you think or suggest?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I don't use carbon but keep a few bags on hand just incase I need to remove chemicals etc.
I would replace with ceramic rings. Bio balls don't seem to have the surface area that porous clay or ceramic does.(personal opinion)
As for filter floss not sure would like to know that myself.


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B

b considine

a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude
I use filter floss (actually plain polyester pillow batting from a craft store) in the top chamber of my canister. It needs to be changed out every couple of months or when I see a reduced return.

Blaise
 
mchambers

mchambers

Former CCA member
I agree that bioballs aren't really all that great for a canister and that ceramic rings would be better.

Filter floss is fine, but will clog more quickly than sponges/foam. Because of that, I don't use floss in my canisters. I typically use some combination of foam and ceramic rings.
 
Becca

Becca

Members
I use biomedia and coarse sponges. If I use the finer sponges the filter clogs/flow slows too often.

I either use the eheim bio media, fluval "rings", or lava rock (you can buy small chunks in bags for horticulture, etc.).
 
Mwildgruber

Mwildgruber

Members
in my 2 canisters i have red lava rock as the bio media. home depot sells a like a 40lb bag for around 10$ break it into smaller pieces for more surface area and i have that in 3 out of the 4 treas or baskets in my filters.
 
Acpape0

Acpape0

Members
Mwildgruber said:
in my 2 canisters i have red lava rock as the bio media. home depot sells a like a 40lb bag for around 10$ break it into smaller pieces for more surface area and i have that in 3 out of the 4 treas or baskets in my filters.
Click to expand...

Can't beat the price of lava rock , use extra $ saved for fish food... I use pinky filters for all of my mech filtration buy far the most economical mechanical filtration


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D-money

D-money

Members
Whats in my filter...I had 24 Filamentosa Barb fry living amongst the filter pads and Eheim Pro bio media in my xp3.
 
madcobra216

madcobra216

Members
On my 240 show tank I use 2 Fluval FX5, minus the cabon filling. 2 Fluval 405 on my 90 gallon, all my other grow out are being filtered with sponge.

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xny89

xny89

Administrator
Staff member
OK, thanks for sharing the info.


I think I will replace the carbon with lava rock. Seems that there is the BBQ version and the landscaping version. Which do you use?

I'll keep the coarse sponges that came with the filter. I'll add some more ceramic rings to the tray, and use something like pinky filter media as the polishing filter on top. Since I just cleaned out the filter, this will probably not happen 'till my next cleaning. Thanks again.
 
Becca

Becca

Members
xny1989 said:
OK, thanks for sharing the info.


I think I will replace the carbon with lava rock. Seems that there is the BBQ version and the landscaping version. Which do you use?

I'll keep the coarse sponges that came with the filter. I'll add some more ceramic rings to the tray, and use something like pinky filter media as the polishing filter on top. Since I just cleaned out the filter, this will probably not happen 'till my next cleaning. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

I've used the landscaping version, but rinse it really well. It has loads of dust.
 
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