What's the best filter pads and media to buy

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Maloney112

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I have a fluval 2 u series and wondering what' the best filter and media to use. My water is a little bit green looking through the side of the tank. And filter not collecting all debris as there is small particals floating and fish waste at the bottom of the tank. Wondering if I need to change pads and then eventually new media as media is only gravel from old fish tank. Thanks for the help
 
Filters, especially internals, do not remove the fish waste from the bottom of the tank. It is the fishkeeper's job to remove that during a water change. If there are live plants growing in the gravel, they will use it as fertiliser as it breaks down.

The Fluval U series has a central box full of biomax, a sponge (foam) on each side of that, and on the outside two polycarbon pads.
The biomax and sponges just need washing in the water you take out during a water change. The polycarbon pads should be changed regularly. The carbon bit gets full and stops working, and poly bit will get clogged easily. Since you don't need to use carbon routinely, buy a sheet of filter wool/filter floss and cut it to the same shape as a polycarbon pad. Filter wool/floss doesn't wash well, it goes holey and shapeless so just put a new piece in whenever one gets clogged with brown goo.

Green water could be an algal bloom - microscopic algae floating in the water. You need to find out why it is occurring, and make changes to stop it. Plants, including algae, need light, fertiliser and carbon dioxide to grow. If one of these is out of balance with the other two, that will cause algae to grow. For example, how long are the lights on for?
 
Thanks for the reply. I have sand in my tank so unable to bury my plants and not enough sand to also. Lights are on most of the day but stopping that now while I'm in work was roughly on for 9 hours a day. The filter I have didn't have any biomax in the media so I used old gravel. If I buy some biomax can I just replace the old gravel for it or do I have to do it in stages?
 
I would replace the gravel with biomax, a bit at a time. I'm not sure that gravel will allow the water to circulate properly through the filter. Maybe replace a third straight away, then another third in a month.then the final third a month after that.

If you don't have live plants, 9 hours is too long for the lights to be on. But having shallow sand does not mean you can't have live plants. My 180 litre tank also has shallow sand and is full of plants but none of them are rooted in the substrate. I have java fern windelov (it's prettier than standard java fern), 3 different species of anubias, bolbitis and bucephalandra maia all attached to pieces of wood; hornwort draped through another piece of wood; and water sprite floating on the surface. Maybe it doesn't look as good as the other tanks you see on here, but the fish seem to like it.
These are all easy, slow growing plants so my lights are on for just 6 hours a day and the plants seem to thrive. All I do is feed them Seachem Flourish, the one with nothing else in the name, at half the stated dose once a week (or when I remember).
 
How have you attached the plants to the wood and would it be possible if you can send a picture so I can see. I have 2 live plants cryptocoryn becketti and bacopa compact. If I have them in the sand they will just float to the top. And is seachem flourish ok with all types of fish? Have replaced one filter today with poly carbon filter and added a bit of biomax to media will had more weekend also added 5ml of cycle to help.
 
Just a word about Cycle - it does not work. If you want to use a bottled bacteria, Tetra Safe Start is the best one to use.

I tied my plants to the wood with a length of sewing yarn. It can be fiddly and is much better if you get someone to put their finger on the knots while you are tying them. Some types of wood have crevices in them and you can wedge the plants in the crevice. Before long the plants will cling to the wood by themselves.
If you haven't used wood before, with most types they have to be soaked to get them to sink. One piece of mine took 3 weeks to sink.
 
Hi

Just my opinion.

Other than removing some medications Activated Carbon is a waste of time and money.
 
I missed part of your post so I'll comment now.

Next time you want to change the polycarbon pad, don't waste your money buying new ones. You don't need carbon so I would use just filter wool/filter floss instead. You can by this by the yard/metre and cut it up to the shape of a polycarbon pad. As I mentioned before, filter wool doesn't wash well so it will need replacing regularly when it gets full of goo.

The two plants you mentioned won't grow attached to wood. They need to be rooted in the sand. It is only certain species of plant that can be attached to decor, and these cling to the decor like ivy does to trees.
I have never managed to grow plants that have to be rooted in the substrate (they've always died pretty quickly) but I think they should be given root tabs rather than liquid fertiliser. The plants grown on decor do need liquid fertliser as they can only get nutrients from the water column.
 
Cryptocoryn becketti can be tied or crazy glued to wood however it takes a long time to attach itself.
 
Cryptocoryn becketti can be tied or crazy glued to wood however it takes a long time to attach itself.

I stand corrected :)

i don't know much about plants other than those I have.
 

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