filter media help

[dianel64]

My friend is moving house & gave me her canister filter, I've never used one before. So I'm looking advice on what media to put in the 3 baskets. She had ceramic noodles in the bottom with floss on top, bio balls next with floss & carbon in the top basket also topped with floss. I have always used internal filters with sponge so I'm not sure what to use. Any other suggestions.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

You say "had", is it still setup that way? What filter is it (make/model)? I will say, it's a nice gimme .

Sounds fine to me. I'm not a big fan of bioballs or carbon, but there's no reason you can't use it as is. I have a Fluval 305 with 3 trays and I have floss (poly-fil) in the bottom tray as a pre-(fine) filter, middle tray with biomedia (noddles) and top tray spilt with biomedia and floss.

 

[dianel64]

You say "had", is it still setup that way? What filter is it (make/model)? I will say, it's a nice gimme .

Sounds fine to me. I'm not a big fan of bioballs or carbon, but there's no reason you can't use it as is. I have a Fluval 305 with 3 trays and I have floss (poly-fil) in the bottom tray as a pre-(fine) filter, middle tray with biomedia (noddles) and top tray spilt with biomedia and floss.

It hasn't been running for a couple of months now. She gave the tank to her brother, he uses it for cornsnakes so didn't need the filter. It's from allpondsolutions 1000EF. I'll be running it along side the original Juwel filter.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

It hasn't been running for a couple of months now. She gave the tank to her brother, he uses it for cornsnakes so didn't need the filter. It's from allpondsolutions 1000EF. I'll be running it along side the original Juwel filter.

Did it get cleaned out, or has it been sitting untouched for 2 months? Sounds like a major cleaning may be needed first, but free is a very good price . Yep, extra filtration is always a plus in my book. I'd suggest being picky about what media is reusable, if it were me.

 

[Hubert90]

My friend is moving house & gave me her canister filter, I've never used one before. So I'm looking advice on what media to put in the 3 baskets. She had ceramic noodles in the bottom with floss on top, bio balls next with floss & carbon in the top basket also topped with floss. I have always used internal filters with sponge so I'm not sure what to use. Any other suggestions.

Just a suggestion. U want to keep ur ceramic noodles in the top basket. So it doesn't get clogged up as fast as it will if place in the bottom basket. Also bio balls aint the best IMO because it can trap alot of debris and become a nitrate factory hence more work for u. I use eheim subtract pro and seachem matrix. Both are great! The latter one is cheaper

 

[dianel64]

Did it get cleaned out, or has it been sitting untouched for 2 months? Sounds like a major cleaning may be needed first, but free is a very good price . Yep, extra filtration is always a plus in my book. I'd suggest being picky about what media is reusable, if it were me.

It has been totally cleaned out, no media in it, although she gave me a bag of noodles & floss.

 

[dianel64]

Just a suggestion. U want to keep ur ceramic noodles in the top basket. So it doesn't get clogged up as fast as it will if place in the bottom basket. Also bio balls aint the best IMO because it can trap alot of debris and become a nitrate factory hence more work for u. I use eheimin subtract pro and seachem matrix. Both are great! The latter one is cheaper

So noodles in the top basket & no bio balls or carbon. Thanks

 

[Hubert90]

Yep good Luck!

 

[Mr. Limpet]

It has been totally cleaned out, no media in it, although she gave me a bag of noodles & floss.

Sounds good. I'd put the floss in the bottom, noddles in the middle/top and maybe some floss at the final out to keep anything out of the return pipe. Depending on tank vs. filter size, you could leave part of it empty so if you need to add carbon to remove meds, you don't have to pull seeded media out.

 

[dianel64]

Thanks for the advice