What media could be put in a sump filter, it has 3 compartments in the one i have and only 2 can be used for media,so what media could i use and where to put it. thanks

You can put those bio balls in

i have one compartment for those but should they go in the 1st compartment or 2nd? bearing in mind that the 1st compartment is the inlet pipe(dirty stuff)

I dont know much about sumps, hopefully someone who does will chime in

i would think the biofiltration should be the last stage. dont quote me tho.

if you have a two compartment sump use part of the first one with a sponge filter then pack as meny bio balls as you can into the remainming two.
in all types of filters it is recommended to have the clean water flow over the biomedia.

My (admittedly large) sump is setup as follows:

- Chamber 1 (Physical and Biological Filtration):

Spinner distributes water over "wool" as a filter to pull out any large particles. (The wool is actually what you buy from fabric shops to stuff pillows/ cushions etc with).

The water (less any large particles) then goes through 500 bioballs, and 20 litres of filter floss

- Chamber 2 (Nitrate filtration)

Refugioum setup with lots of plants (deep sand substrate to promote anerobic bacteria). SOme heaters in this chamber

- Chamber 3 (Chemical Filtration)

This chamber the water firt goes through a series of sponges (to get rid of anything coming our of sump) and then through various chemical filtration stages - ie carbon etc. I also put heaters in this chamber

- Chamber 4 (Return + heaters)


For media there are heaps of choices available - you can buy expensive media such as special porus rock or bioballs(I have some of this), but then stainless steel pot scrubbers, dish scrapers etc all have large surface area and are just as good (my brother uses this sort of media in his sump and works the same as mine).

Any questions - happy to answer.

I have done a LOT of reseach on the subject.

hey id be very careful using any sponges or dish scrapers for the purpose of doing dishes. most of them now are treated with stuff that prohibits the growth of bacteria. you dont want this in your tank.

Win wrote:


Not necessarily true

The way to go is to buy either the stainless steal ones - and boil them (will remove any additives) OR buy the cheapest ones possible. The cheapest ones available will not have anything added which will add to the cost. As always boil them, but myself (and my brother) have used dish sponges etc and never had problems.

im just saying get one thats not treated. like i bought some at the dollar store, like 10 pack for a dollar just to clean my lobster tank and i just happened to luck out and saw in very small print "treated with antibacterial agent, not for aquarium or live fish use".

i dont know if that would make much of an impact on the ecology in the fish tank but i dont want to risk damaging my beneficial bacteria colony