What Should Go In My Bio Basket?

[This Old Spouse]

I have a Penguin 330 power filter system that I received from a donor, but I don't know what, if anything, should go in the Bio Baskets. I did some research but did not find anything helpful. Here's what was suggested: peat, floss, cotton, charcoal, gravel, ammonia chips. I had thought possibly a sponge, but never did see that. Ideas? I have a very cloudy 55 gal tank now and anything I could use in there to help clear it up would be welcome. Thanks!

 

[elisew]

Judging by the pdf user manual, *11* in the top picture shows where your sponge/floss media should be, the second picture states that you can fill with media of your own choice so if you have a cloudy 'little bits floating' kind of look to your tank then a fine floss kind of media would probably be a good idea, as it will catch more of the small particles that are floating around.
I personally have the standard filter sponges and bio rings in my filter. I don`t use Carbon unless I`ve finished using meds and I don`t use peat (for lowering ph).

Link to the kind of bio you could use should you choose to:
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/200g-Premium-Ceramic-Bio-Rings-%1a-Aquarium-Filter-Media-_W0QQitemZ320621818791QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=184820925207&rvr_id=184820925207&cguid=e5bd15c312c0a0a9ef8529c5ff5b2b27#ht_709wt_1141

Hope this helps

 

[the biffster]

alfagrog its cheap and easy to get hold
of

 

[This Old Spouse]

Excellent information!

 

[waterdrop]

"peat, floss, cotton, charcoal, gravel, ammonia chips"

As elise says, Sponges and ceramic rings/shapes are the biomedia you'll see most often recommended here (and for good reason - you want things that can last for years!)

Peat - is a specialty media for lowering pH (don't fool with this unless you know what you're doing)

Floss - (aka polyfloss, aka cotton) is pretty standard as a "fine mechanical" media
(this means it catches small things and needs to be replaced pretty frequently)
(there are tougher floss pads that work almost as well but can be squeezed out more often before replacement)
(the super-cheap way to do floss is to find pillow stuffing at Walmart that doesn't have fire-retardant chems)

Charcoal - (aka carbon, aka activated charcoal) is a "chemical media" best used optionally for short periods to remove medications, tannins or organic odors of unknown origin. It's best kept on the shelf for these occasions.

Gravel - A perfectly fine biomedia if you have enough tray space in the filter for a decent depth bed. It is less in style these days because it has less surface area than some other types of media.

Ammonia chips - White Ammo chips are a "chemical media" used to completely remove ammonia that contacts them. This sounds great to beginners but is actually a tricky problem: If used incorrectly it can remove all the food for the bacterial colonies, causing them to not form or to die, then, at some unexpected point the chemical resin completely fills up and stops (very suddenly, in a matter of an hour or something) removing ammonia, potentially resulting in a deadly ammonia spike. This material -can- be used effectively if used in small, frequently replaced, amounts that come -after- the biomedia in the filter and are initially used -after- the colonies are mature (beginners should probably stay away from it and advanced aquarists should use it with caution in my opinion.) (Zeolite is one of the names of this stuff.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[This Old Spouse]

Ah, now THIS is why I joined this forum ... in hopes of getting a complete and knowledgeable response! Thank you!

NOW ... after reading all this, I just wanted you to know that I would not have chosen peat OR ammonia chips because I'm not a scientist and fooling around with this stuff without knowing everything about it scares me and I just wouldn't. I was leaning toward putting some kind of floss in there to try and catch all that nasty stuff that's floating around, just to see if it would work and I could FINALLY have a clear tank. At this point I don't care how much I have to clean it, so long as it gets the job done. I work from my home so time isn't a huge issue and I can afford to spend quite a bit of time trying to get all this right.

Again, thank you for being so thorough and patient with this noobie!

 

[sylros]

I know this is an old post but found it when searching about ammonia chips and their benefits.

Just recently, I got a penguin filter 20 for my 10gal tank. Since the beginning I had been having problems with my ammonia for several reasons...overfeeding but my old filter was also crap. I was very mindful of the fish which none died. Somehow when I put the ammo chips for a 10gal, it worked - everything settled. Things have been good with no ammonia but there's also 0 nitrate and 0 nitrites. Isn't that odd? Because of this post, I'm now wondering if this is caused by the ammo chips.

The prepackaged pouches are supposedly good for 1 month...so once it goes, I should expect a spike, I'll keep a close eye. Also, there are reusable ammo chips available which i also have in an attempt to keep the cost down. I'm still not super convinced these are super helpful...I noticed more of change when the filter was upgraded than with just the ammo chips. But so far, I haven't had a spike since I've been using them.