filter media order

[meesheelly]

I know thisw has been asked be for but i cant seem to find it.

I have just got an aqua one Cf1000 canister filter and it came with a layer of filter wool, a fine sponge, a coarse sponge, noodles and those little ball things.

What order do i put them in????

[sharn]

this is just my thinking and it could be wrong, it works for me though

thick sponge on the bottom-this traps all the large gunk

fine sponge (or filter wool, whichevers least fine)- this traps the medium gunk

then finest sponge (filter wool)- this polishes the water

then bio media (noodles and balls)

that way you dont have to rinse your bio media very often and disturb the colonies, the large gunk is going to get trapped nearest the bottom meaning you just have to rinse them. JMO

[Wok]

as Sharn said but make sure that you find out what direction the flow is and make sure that the course material is the first to get the dirty water and work towards the finer material

[meesheelly]

cool thakns guys thats what i was thinking. Now i just have to find out which way it flows

[sharn]

haha yeah- forgot to mention that one!! i didnt know at first but on my jebao you follow the inlet thru the top and then it has like a pipe thing thats part of the baskets that goes down to the bottom so it goes from bottom up (if that makes sence lol).

[JoandWilly]

The way i have mine set up and has been for months without cleaning, is:

Bottom: course filter pad, with plastic balls on top of that

Middle: medium filter pad with noddles on top of that

Top - did originally put filter wool there but it affects the flow to much so now have coral pieces in there.

That way has worked great for us but its up to you really how you do it, i'd use the top tray for disposable things like filterwool and carbon and the bottom to for permant stuff so i didnt have to take them out.

[2fishy]

In my CF1000, in the bottom i have the black balls, in the next one i have noodles and the sponges are in the top one.

this works for me, i hardly eva had to clean it and the way i figure it that if the corser stuff is on the bottom then it catches the sludge rather than clogging up the sponges.

[herefishiefishie]

I do the same as 2fishy.

The reason for me to go this way is that oxygen depletes as it moves through the canister. Some bacteria need oxygen to survive. So I have bio balls, matrix, ceramic noodles... at the bottom. Most fish waste passes through these anyway with the force of water. Really, who does have big chunks of waste in there water. :-? Next I have coarse foam, with the top being a slightly finer foam or purigen.... I set my canisters up this way so that I don't have to clean them often, well rarely to be precise. 8)

I do use internals in conjunction with a canister. The internals I use are filled with fine foam to catch the smaller particles. Pretty easy to pull these out to clean. Makes my job easier & is a very effiecent way to filter a tank.

ps; I never use filter wool

Frenchy

[Ira]

The oxygen level isn't going to be depleted significantly by the time the water gets through the cannister. A denitrator, which is designed to have all the oxygen used up usually doesn't flow more than a trickle and the water takes ages going through a LOT of biomedia before it leaves the filter. Your average filter like a 404 isn't even going to make a dent in the oxygen level.