hey guys, I'm fairly new towards having a very good filtration system and right now I have 2 8" O's and I've been keeping the basics such as ammonia&nitrate remover/bio balls/activated carbon/ and sponge. Ever since I've registered on this forum I noticed how many people on this forum don't use or rarely use activated carbon I believe, I don't why people consider it bad, can some body explain to me why? I want to keep my O's as long as I possibly can by keeping good quality water, can anybody give me tips on what i should have in my filter? I own a Fluval 405 canister filter thats filtering a 90 G tank.

thanks.

hi bud from what ive learnt here carbon get saturated
and leeks back in to your water but saying that ive used it to clear a bad smell and it worked for me i run a 405 and a ex 1200 tetra tec on a 46 gallon with no probs

Carbon is believed to cause HITH Disease. it also doesn't do any good unless you are removing medication from water.

Instead of carbon, add more bioballs. adding more Beneficial Bacteria is never a bad thing!

fill it with bio balls. and maybe a fine filter pad on the top.
thats all i use in my 405

X2. mine has a sponge outer to catch large waste.(fx5) all 3 baskets are filled with bio balls. i can see good reason for fine polishing pads but i don't use them. i certainly don't bother with carbon. my reason being is carbon removes heavy metals,smells,colour etc. i do 1 or 2 water changes a wk so am constantly adding more new water. the carbon wouldn't absorb much before it became in need of replacement.it only lasts a few wks (2 or 3). the fine dust can irritate the fish. and my fish do fine without it so why buy what I don't need.

Make sure that you use Purigen as well.
I use twice the suggested amount and my Oscars live in crystal clear water.

1 sponge on bottom
1 tray ceramic
1 tray bio balls
1 tray wool

I have two 2217s that are filled with:

Top: 3" Pillow Baton material
Middle: 5" Bio-Bale and Nitro-sorb
Bottom: 5" Lava rock on top of a course filter pad

I clean one every month and the other the next month and 50% water change every two weeks.. Repeat... Arrrrg..
Their worth it..

This is how my canister is setup...is this alright? If I need to change it let me know.

media is setup like this (eheim pro II):

Top tray- white fabric looking pad with eheim ehfisubtrat Pro underneath

Middle tray- White fabric pad with what looks like the ehfisubtrat Pro but its not sphere shaped...looks more like small rough rocks but same color as ehfi pro

Bottom tray- course blue pad with ehfimech media.

Does this seem good or should I change anything on it?

whoa I'm suprised everybody here uses pure bio filter setup or maybe I'm just a newb.

So when it come to cleaning the filter, how often do you clean it? Do you just clean the sponge and leave the 3 other bio medias untouched?

ikkie78 wrote:



1st you need to work out if the dirty water comes in through the top of the media or the bottom. so assuming the dirt water comes in through the top as it dose on my filter I would place it like so

heavy blocks or course sponge at top. this catches the main mess.
medium sponge or bio in 2 bottom trays as this will keep the good quality bio media clean for longer. the fine polishing pad at bottom to catch any small last missed bits. different media is available. the most costly with high bactiria room should be placed in the cleanest part of your filter. heavy block type in the messy part so this can be washed easy. the same with sponges. I use old media in my messy trays.

yours seams to be set up as the dirty water enters the filter through the bottom.

jchiu wrote:


it depends how large/messy your tank and how many/type of filter you have. I have 150g tank and 2 x fx5s these are good for 400g each. so I clean mine every 4-6 months. my fx5 has 6 course sponge + 3 trays of bio media. i wash all the sponge under tap water then soak it in a water conditioner to remove chlorine. the media in the trays I only wash if dirty and blocked. this at worst means top tray once every 6month to a yr.
the sponge on my setup is to catch mess not bio. the trays are my bio thats why I wash the sponge so well. i have around 4kg of bio media in the trays.

If your filter is very dirty when you open it this will tell you its time to clean it. if its fairly clean leave it longer.

When I say dirty I mean very dirty. your filter will always have some dirty media and should never be like new. if the flow rate is slowing up this is another way to tell its time to clean. very dirty means green/black slime mess over the media