Biological Filter Heart Of A Tank?

[waterdrop]

Yes, we remember that crazy Magnum 350!

And its true, as we said above, that lots of materials will hold a biofilm and cycle, so yes, carbon will cycle just fine. But its a question of what will be really good for you in the long run and will maintain its mechanical integrity over time. You can even put plain old cheap aquarium gravel in a filter and it will form a biofilter - there are some, no doubt, who will be satisfied with that as their biomedia.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jnms]

Ideal filter media setup would go from coarse to finer mechanical followed by the biomedia. The very last thing would be something like the filter floss to make sure no fine bits of stuff comes off the media and ends up in the impeller or being returned to the tank.

I would disagree that this is ideal. The thing that stops biological media working so well is having physical gunk covering up the surface of the biological media preventing bacteria from settling on the surface and getting oxygen. By having filter floss after the biological media you are trapping fine particles after they have had the chance to get stuck in the biological media (many of which have fine pores to maximise the ration of surface area:volume).

An ideal filter set up will have all mechanical media before biological media, thus is the efficiency of the filtration enhanced.

I don't think I understand what you are saying here andy...

Are you suggesting that the biological media should be the final media before the impeller, or that the wool / floss should be the last media?

 

[rabbut]

Andy is saying sponge, floss then biomax. I'm saying sponge biomax then floss, along with Oldman. In principal Andy's way is best, as it means the bio-media is kept clean and working at it's best. However, if the biomedia is fine enough to lift it could find its way into the impeller chamber without floss to stop it, and that could potentially do a lot of damage... same with any gunge build-up from the biomedia.

I suppost the best idea would be a compromise between the two, sponge, floss, biomax, floss, where the first floss is the thikest, and the final layer being very thin to act as a preventative against forign objects getting to the impeller

Just my 2p worth
Rabbut