The more I read about filter material, the more confusing it appears to be. I have an Aqua One CF1200 Cannister filter with three baskets. I dont appear to be getting a good flow rate and I have cleaned and changed the configuration numerous times.

There has been posts which say to put the sponge in the top basket and some say in the bottom basket. Some posts recommend not to use filter wool as this clogs the flow.

I have been using wool in the top basket, with the bioballs in 2 and noodles 3.

My question is in what order does the media go in the filter for the best results?

Bottom (3): Blue sponge/black sponge

middle (2): Black Bio Balls

Top (1): Ceramic noodles

Do I get rid of the wool due too clogging?

Thanks

This is how i done it and its working really well for me,

Bottom - Most coarse sponge and plastic bioballs (collects all the big waste)

Middle - Finer sponge and ceramic noddles (collects the smaller waste)

Top - filter wool (just used to polish the water and barely gets clogged)

Put the sponge at the bottom of the tray and the noodles on top, use the sponge to catch all the waste and the noodles/balls to act as the biological filter. That way the noodles/balls dont get clogged up and you never have to rinse them.

yep, i do exactly the same as JoandWilly and i also have the Aqua One CF1200.

ur never goin to get a strong current out from it as its not design for that.

Mine runs the same as above. Bigger stuff on the bottom. Ceramic Noodles on bottom, and filter wool up top. Mine is only a Jebo 810 so I only have two small trays.

If you have the fine filter wool at the bottom, then none of the organic matter will make it to your bio-balls etc and the filter will clog up very quickly. Sounds like you need to swap your trays around.

Good info Guys,

I'm in the process of installing me Jebao 304, :roll: :roll:

Good to no in which order the filter media should be.

Lynda

i have four baskets (jeabo 304), in the bottom i put a coarse sponge to trap the big particles, second tray gets filter floss to trap the smaller stuff, third tray gets ceramic noodle things and fourth tray already had a pad in it but i put shell grit in there (to harden my water). that way i should very rarely have to disturb the media holding alot of my bacteria (noodles) and just have to rinse the two sponges. im not sure if thats the 'best' way to do it but it seems the most logical to me.

Thanks for the informative info guys. I set mine last night to;

Bottom: both sponges

middle: black bio-balls

top: Ceramic Noodles

My flow rate has increased to a good output. I will see how this goes then try one of your configurations.

Thanks

In regards to the wool, some say to use it on the bottom as a "Prefilter".

I have used wool in the top and bottom but I believe it restricts the flow rate. I.E. the more media the water has to pass through the more restricted it will be.

This is the first configuration Ive use with the wool and only used the media that came with the filter.

sorry to bring this old post back up but i am abit confused i just bought a aquaone cf1200 filter just to make sure it came with these black balls in one tray with some blue plastic type hard sponge and then on another tray some black sponge and these white o ring ceramic type things do i take them out of the plastic bags they came in or leave them in there might sound like a dumb question but i need to make sure

Take them out And no not a dumb question, at least you asked first to be on the safe side

thanks Afrikan, just needed to make sure lol

I bought a cf1200 last weekend and have the media in the same order as Jo and Willy. Running well with a decent sort of flow rate. I'm happy.

Hi

In my CF1200 I use the same configuration as JoandWilly, which is what Aqua One recommend. I,ve probably got mine overstuffed with filter wool though, which I change every 2 weeks

I'm a little disappointed in the clearness of my water, I'm running the CF1200 and an inbuilt 2000ltr/per hr wet/dry in my AR980, I've got carbon and Purigen, yet my water is still a bit flecky when you put your face up to the glass? I've put a little foam in thw wet/dry outlet to stop it stirring up the water so much. Chemically water chemistry is grest, Its a mystery to me!

Regards, TGWH

The main thing with all external canister filters is to find out which direction is through the baskets.

first thing that the water flow should hit first is the

1. Ceramic noodles

2. Smaller filter media

3. Sponge / Filter wool last.

This way you will get the larger stuff being filtered out first and then gradually down to the smaller stuff.

Hope that helps

do i take them out of the plastic bags they came in or leave them in there might sound like a dumb question but i need to make sure

working in a pet shop we have to tell every one to take them out of the bag as it is very common for ppl to leave them in... in the last year i would have about 50ppl that have left it in and then asked why its not working lol...

Hi

In my CF1200 I use the same configuration as JoandWilly, which is what Aqua One recommend. I,ve probably got mine overstuffed with filter wool though, which I change every 2 weeks

Change every 2 weeks! What fish do you have?

There is no need to change the filter wool. A simple rinse does the job and you only need to do this once in a blue moon or if you're having dirty tank problems.

If you are having trouble with cloudy water you might want to try products like P-Clear.

my preference is to use sponge instead of filter wool as the filter wool gets clogged quite quickly.

When it starts to get clogged it becomes even more dense so not much water will flow through it.

I have used filter wool in my HOB filters and they clog quite quickly... faster than sponges

Thats my experience.

Sorry to butt in on your thread but Wok when you say filter wool is that the white stuff on the top layer of the filter?

yeah.

filter wool is like cotton wool in looks, but is actually dacron.

when you get cotton wool wet it becomes a clump. similar to what filter wool becomes after a while

Hi slimNZ

My tank is extensively planted (variety of swords, crypts, cambomba, anubias, java ferns on driftwood, java moss, dwarf saggitaria, pigmy chain sword, saurarus, straight and twisted vals, glassos, and some others) and moderately populated (Blue Ram pair, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 6 Corys, 1 Brstlenose, 7 Ottos, 2 SAEs, 16 neons and 20 harlequins.

I change the filter wool frequently but dont interfere with the ceramic noodles or bio-balls in either filter.

Any comments most welcome

Regards, TGWH

if you want to change your floss often and you have plenty of other bio media in there then its probably not too much of a problem, sure the floss will hold bacteria but there should be enough on your bio media to keep things stable. i rinse it every clean out i do, i personally only change mine when it gets old and starts to break up.

After having my CF500 for 2 months, I found the bio-ball and course sponge hardly capture anything and decided to replace them with biomax noddles and purigen. Not sure if others do the same but as the CF500 only have 2 media tray, anything that is not as effective will have to go. So far the water is clean and the reading is good.

Hi

Thanks for the advice! I think I will rinse rather than change the wool in future and I 've heard good things about bio-max so will look into that as well. I currently use Purigen, Carbon and Phos-guard (I suspect I overfeed a bit so want to take phosphates out of the equation) as well as the sponges, noodles and bioballs.

Regards, TGWH

Hi All,

I'm with "joandwilly" except that I also put Carbon rods in the top basket and TWO pads of Filter Wool woth the carbon in the sandwich. :lol:

It works a treat.