What do you put inside your filter canisters?

[overhaul]

yesterday, I cleaned out my two filter canisters. I had had the same biological medium in there from the first day I put them together 3 years ago (not carbon, tho). I tossed everything except for the foam inserts.. and I found tons of snail shells.

So what are people using nowadays to put into the canisters? Is this medium still a must? So far all I have in those right now is new polyester filter fiber, and plan on getting foam insert replacements

before I go buying stuff I may not need at all, any advice?

btw, I have added enough salt to bring the gravity up to 20 ppt. no fish, this is just for killing off snails, ich, whatever else...

 

[Cat]

I'm confused with filters ,are you supposed to have a carbon sachet in all time?

 

[overhaul]

personally, I never use carbon. Don't think it's necessary.

 

[SirMinion]

If you feel the need to replace the foams, do so one at a time, with a gap of several weeks inbetween. This will allow time for the new foam to be seeded with benificial bacteria from the old.

In my internal HOB filters I have foam for the bacteria & polypads as a mechanical filter.
In my external cannisters, I have foam as a mech filter, carbon as a purifier & ceramic tubes for the bacteria.

Cat - the carbon is there to remove impurities from the water and becomes 'inactive' after a while which is why it needs to be replaced. It is the carbon that gives you the sparkling clear water known as 'polished water'

 

[Cat]

Cat - the carbon is there to remove impurities from the water and becomes 'inactive' after a while which is why it needs to be replaced. It is the carbon that gives you the sparkling clear water known as 'polished water'

I have 2 tanks running one filter as a carbon sachet in ,the other doesn't, should I put one in both?


We always had a UG one so don't know much about fluval ones

 

[luxum]

I'm currently using 2 fine foam inserts and Eheim's excellent SubstratPro biomedia, with a coarse foam prefilter on the intake. I'm considering switching one of the foam inserts for loose fiber fill. I only use carbon to remove meds.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Carbon does not really need to be used all the time and doing so can cause problems as eventually the carbon will start leaking what it's taken out of the water back in. Should really ony need to be used when you want to remove meds.

I use ceramic rings in 2 of my filters and sponge and the rest just have sponge.

 

[Cat]

OH! never had use meds ,maybe I should take it out

 

[CFC]

The media i have in my canisters is in layers as follows

Ceramic rings (mechanical filter media)
Eheim substrat pro (sphintered glass balls) (biological filter media)
KENT Nitrate Sponge Granules (in mesh bag) (chemical filter media)
Eheim efi mech (fine grade mechanical filter media)
2 medium grade sponges (biological media)
floss pad (final stage mechanical media for water polishing)

 

[Cheese Specialist]

OH! never had use meds ,maybe I should take it out

Well, it's just in my opinion. Others may well think differently.

 

[overhaul]

thank you for the ideas.

SirMinion, I actually want to kill off everything in the tank and I'm sure that will include beneficial bacteria. EVerything else is already dead (long story) so all I have right now is 55 gallon tank full of new tap water and the same old gravel which I did my best to clean out using a very strong spray from the hose to aggitate it all and many many changes of water. Now I just want to run it empty like that and kill EVERYTHING that may still be left over (without using chemicals or meds)