Aqua One - Aquis 1200 - Right Order?

[Schmill]

I'm interested to hear other peoples thoughts on this.

I used to be an avid pond fish keeper, and I have a fairly monster filter that the water used to run through. It was a top-fed, bottom drain filter, (water in at the top, out at the bottom effectivly), and it was in this order:

course sponge
course sponge
course sponge
finer sponge
bio media (corrugated tubes of plastic)

That made sense to me. Filter out the big particals, filter out the smaller particals, lastly give the bacteria somewhere to live.

Similarly my intank Interpet PF2 filter has the following arrangement;

Course sponge
Charcoal sponge
Fine wool
Ceramic noodles

What has thrown me however is the layout of my new aquarium filter, (Aquis 1200). This is the better 'upflow' design where the dirty water is deposited at the bottom, and then flows up through the media, and finally exits at the top.
The media layers for this though, starting from the bottom and working up, (so following the flow of water so as to compare with two above);

Bio-Balls
Course Sponge (15ppi)
Porous ceramic noodles
Course Sponge (15ppi)
Black Sponge (35ppi)
Wool

So the sponge order makes sense to me, I was just REALLY suprised to see the bio elements that early in the filter. Surely don't they just get choked up with the larger particals?
I would have expected something more like this:

Course Sponge (15ppi)
bio-balls
Course sponge (15ppi)
ceramic noodles
blank sponge (35ppi)
Wool

Just intrigued what other people think, and what the layout of their external cannister filters is like.

Thanks

 

[doresy]

My choice for the AquaOne canopy trickle filter on my tanks is....

Water flows in from the top through

Fine wool to trap most particals and is cleaned thoroughly each water change (weekly)

Thick layer of coarse foam media to house bacteria, squeezed out every other water change.

Noodles in a tray, gently shaked in old tank water to dislodge any sludge every 3rd water change.

Thin layer of finer foam, checked and cleaned when neccessary

Finally wool to 'polish' water, cleaned every water change.

I have 2 chambers as above which have provided me with years of crystal clear water with 0-0 for ammonia and nitrite

Works for me

 

[rabbut]

My Tetratecs run with a similar "upflow" design. A course sponge is in the bottom basket, above a layer of mechanical ceramic rings, followed by a basket of two course sponges, followed by a finer sponge and floss, followed by bioballs Note the top two baskets are the opposit to the manufacturer recomendation, and the fine sponge is a non-standord media

HTH
Rabbut

 

[albinobristlenose]

Hi, I am a new member to the forum and joined to look for information on the Aqua one in hood filter system, which some of you seem to have.

My water is slightly cloudy, what could be very small bubbles, or white particles throughout the water.

I am trying to improve the hood filtration system of my Aqua One AR-620 (90 litres) the water comes up from the tank okay and goes out of the spray arm onto the fine sponge okay, but most of the water goes back through the slot where the spray arm comes into the filter area and back into the tank, only about 1/5 of the water being pumped goes all the way through the filter to the other side of the tank and drops down into the tank as it should.

I did try blocking up the U shaped slot for the spray arm which did force more of the water through the media and across the filter in the correct direction, but when the sponge became a little blocked about 5 days later the water over flowed and emptied my tank by about 8 litres, nice mess all over the carpet !!!

so I took the gromet out as this seems to be the overflow fail safe.

Has anyone tried altering the way the filter works, i.e. placing the sponges vertically? (obviously cut to the right size!)

Thanks for any assistance.

if you are interested I have;
1x Albino Bristle nose
1x loach
2 x turquise Gouarmis
5x rosey Barbs (3M : 2F) which have had 2 babies so the tank can't be too bad
4x zebra danos