TwoTankAmin
Fish Maniac
I do not bag pre-filters, I use a fine mesh net when I remove them. But removal means the entire intake assembly on my ACs. It takes me about 5-10 seconds to net the sponge part and then remove the intake assembly with the net around the pre-filter foam. For my ATI pre-filters I use a bigger net bit for the smaller sponged as I showed above, I use a brine shrimp net. With my canisters the pre-filter is all IO clean weekly. The internal media is only cleaned twice/year. Not having the pre-filter would mean a ton more maint. work to keep a canister running well.
I have the same media in all my ACs whether the 20 or the 110 and all those in between. Two blocks of foam, (now mostly 20 ppi Poret) with a piece of the ,ore rigid type filter floss between them. I used to use the Big Al's floss which came in rolls. But during Covid they shut down their American operation and I cannot get that floss any longer. I used to throw out the dirty pad and replace it. Now I clean and reuse them. I am stretching out the last floss roll as long as I can.
My first tank had a UGF which became an RUGF and then was removed. It is hard to do well planted substrates which get substrate ferts when one is using a UGF/RUGF unless you want to grow a lot of algae.
As far as I am concerned the best filter a tank can have is a well planted tank which has a majority of the plants with roots in the substrate. But not all tanks can or will be planted. Some fish eat and or decimate plants. Some fish keepers do not want to have to buy plants and.or care for them. In such tanks the next best filter option is a hamburg Mattenfilter. They are way more reliable, need much less maint. and work better than most other filters. It is the massive size of the foam and the rigid quality of it which makes this happen. Most mature Matten filters will also do a fair bit of denitrification using facultative bacteria. Plus Mattens need a real ton of junk to clog them to the point of needing to be cleaned. We are talking years here.
My best working Eheim canister uses 100% Poret foam inside except for the final floss pad which is needed to make things fit properly. I only need to clean it every few years compared to my other Eheims which I clean twice a year.
The best reason for using pre-filters is they help to insure that the media inside the filter is much less likely to clog. And I agree with fishorama on the time to clean a pre-filter v.s. the filter media on the inside of a filter. I rinse media in a bucket of tank water. I can rinse several of the smaller pre-filters I use on ACs in a single bucket of water. Rinsing the filter's internal media may required two buckets just for a single media set.
I have the same media in all my ACs whether the 20 or the 110 and all those in between. Two blocks of foam, (now mostly 20 ppi Poret) with a piece of the ,ore rigid type filter floss between them. I used to use the Big Al's floss which came in rolls. But during Covid they shut down their American operation and I cannot get that floss any longer. I used to throw out the dirty pad and replace it. Now I clean and reuse them. I am stretching out the last floss roll as long as I can.
My first tank had a UGF which became an RUGF and then was removed. It is hard to do well planted substrates which get substrate ferts when one is using a UGF/RUGF unless you want to grow a lot of algae.
As far as I am concerned the best filter a tank can have is a well planted tank which has a majority of the plants with roots in the substrate. But not all tanks can or will be planted. Some fish eat and or decimate plants. Some fish keepers do not want to have to buy plants and.or care for them. In such tanks the next best filter option is a hamburg Mattenfilter. They are way more reliable, need much less maint. and work better than most other filters. It is the massive size of the foam and the rigid quality of it which makes this happen. Most mature Matten filters will also do a fair bit of denitrification using facultative bacteria. Plus Mattens need a real ton of junk to clog them to the point of needing to be cleaned. We are talking years here.
My best working Eheim canister uses 100% Poret foam inside except for the final floss pad which is needed to make things fit properly. I only need to clean it every few years compared to my other Eheims which I clean twice a year.
The best reason for using pre-filters is they help to insure that the media inside the filter is much less likely to clog. And I agree with fishorama on the time to clean a pre-filter v.s. the filter media on the inside of a filter. I rinse media in a bucket of tank water. I can rinse several of the smaller pre-filters I use on ACs in a single bucket of water. Rinsing the filter's internal media may required two buckets just for a single media set.
