External Filter Material.

[Graeme Edwards]

Just a quickie,

In general, what order does the different media get layered in?

Im under the impression that the water in the filter gets pulled up from the bottom to the top and then out into the tank, so that would suggest that the biological media sits at the top and mechanical at the bottom.

Is that right do all filters flow and filter in the same way so that in general there is a proper way of layering the media no matter what brand of external you use?

Cheers graeme.

 

[anodized]

yup . i think you got it right, thats what it appears to be to me.

mechanical - bio - carbon

some filters use media, other more expensive ones use discrete stages like pentair.

 

[jarmado]

yes the water is being pulled out from the bottom.
BUT the water from the tank is coming from the top.
SO from top, mechanical, chemical, biological media...

 

[andywg]

The direction of the water changes depending on the filter. Most have the water enter at the bottom and flow up through mech to chem to bio (you want the bio to be the last thing so that there is less chance of detritus clogging up the large surface area of biomedia and rendering it useless).

However my Eheim wet dry flowed down so it was mech then bio. Though this filter was crap...the true runt of the Eheim stable.

Other than the Eheim wet/dry, I can't think of any filters that pull water from the bottom though...So chances are you want to follow your own advice. Some have it enter from the top but flow straight down. Better designs (such as the Eheim classic) have the water enter at the bottom so there is zero media avoidance.

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Good stuff

Ive checked both my externals the Hydor prime10 flows water down around the inner bucket and up through the bottom so bio at the top, the other an ATMAN ( Peak aquatics own brand CRAP ) i carnt figure that one out, i think thats the same too.