Need help with filter??

[efinch77]

Hey there, i have a 75 gallon freshwater tank that is one week into a fishless cycle. I am using an emperor 400 and emperor 280 on this tank. I do have the original cabon filters in (which i keep hearing many of you dont use) and i put some pillow stuffing in the media baskets. Im still seeing small specks of stuff in the water and want to know what i should replace the blue carbon inserts with and what might be better to put in the grey media holders, any help would be greatly appreciated....Thanks,
Emmett

 

[neilanh]

I'm surprised the pillow stuffing isn't capturing that stuff. Usually filter floss, as it's called in the hobby, collects all of that small particulate.

Moving to General Hardware forum.

 

[BigJim]

I had a lot of luck with cutting canister filter foam into strips and stuffing the media cages with it to make a DIY filter cartridge. I think I used the Cascade fine foam.

You may just need to jam more floss in the baskets.

 

[efinch77]

ya, the type of "floss" (lol) im using isn't in strips, its more like a ball of stuffing. I will try to find some of the other type and cut to fit. What do you guys recommend to replace the carbon filter with? I've read that most people say you don't need it unless you are giving meds.

 

[BigJim]

Your ball of stuffing can work very well. It sounds like you might not have enough in the cage and small particles are slipping through the gaps in the floss.

There's no need to replace the carbon with anything if you don't want to. You could always use the space to put more filter floss or some kind of biomedia in the filter.