all ways use carbon for safey it will prevent ill ness of the fish in your tank

Ok in my 55 im going to put bio mass in all the chambers. In my 20 im going to replace the carbon inserts with foam, ill do that in my 10 gallon with the baby convict/parrot too. Thanks for the help.

You are better off putting as much biological filtration in as you can. Mechanical filtration is important as it catches all solid waste, however I wouldn't put too much of this in because it just takes up space that you could use for biological. Some people like to put polishing pads in, however these need changing on a weekly basis, they get absolutely filthy with Oscars. Personally, I wouldn't bother, you don't need them. One 2 inch mechanical pad is all you really need. This is what I put in my two canister filters, three trays of biological and one sponge pad. I have got two canister filters which are rated to 130 gallons each on my 125 gallon tank so this obviously makes one heck of a difference to how clean the filters stay.

Ok i was thinking about putting the bio stuff in all 4 chambers. It already had 4 foam pads to filter out the debris. I was talking about the 20 and 10 gallons about replacing the carbon inserts with foam. Could i use something better than foam?

Surrey, what filter you talking about? if you are talking about a hob filter, they are not commonly used data here in the UK.

OFL wrote:

QUOTE:
Surrey, what filter you talking about? if you are talking about a hob filter, they are not commonly used data here in the UK.

The 55 has a Fluval 404 canister thats rated for a 100 gallon tank, it has my Oscar. The 20 gallon has a penguin bio wheel 150 hob, and a beautiful Blood Red Parrot. It has 2 carbon media inserts. The 10 gallon has a hob. Im not sure what make but its not a bio wheel. It has some weird mesh thing for the bio filter and a carbon insert pad.