Floss or Sponge for Filter Media

[njnauticalnut]

Which do you prefer, floss or sponge? And why?

 

[Tropjunky]

i use both sponge ant the bottom and floss at the top, Cos if i had only floss then i'd be forever changing it

my filter goes

water out

floss
active carbon or elimi-phos
bio stars (bio media)
fine sponge
course sponge

water in

good system like most people

 

[njnauticalnut]

Trop,

What size tank and what brand of filter are you using?

Thanks.

 

[Sky042]

I use floss a lot in my filters even those that are supposed to take cartirdges I've found that I can use floss in there if I'm not using carbon.

in my cannisters I use a combo of floss and 50 micron poly pads as mechanical filtration.

 

[Becca]

Stupid question, but maybe not?

What is Floss?

 

[njnauticalnut]

Becca,

Floss is a fiber that is used in filters to remove the particles from your tank. Filters that have cartridges usually have floss as a part of the cartridge, but it can be used on its own. My filter has two cartridges, one has floss and carbon, the other has sponge.

The link below shows a picture of a bag of floss. I have never purchased anything from this site, just did a search to find a picture as I know I like to see a pictures of things.
http/www.yourpetcenter.com/html/filters/.../flossmedia.htm

M.E.

 

[Becca]

Oooooh! I get it! Ok, so (if you're familiar with Whisper Filters) my Whisper 40 has an inlet valve which sucks in water, then the water goes through floss, carbon, floss sponge and then back into the tank. I have a BioBag that goes into my filter - it's got the whtie "floss" stuff on either side, and carbon in the middle.

Think I get it, thanks!!

 

[njnauticalnut]

Becca,

Yep, you got it!

I remember when I first heard floss I immediately thought of dental floss and the first image that came to my mind was strings of dental floss doing lord knows what!

 

[Becca]

LOL. I laugh, but that's what I thought. I was like "How is that gonna help???"

Thanks for the info. It's nice to learn new things about my tank. Isn't it GI Joe that said it: And now I Know...and knowing is half the battle... GI JOE!!!

 

[BigSteve]

♂ I have an Aquaclear filter, which is the most versatile HOB
(hang on back) filter. I have a sponge on the bottom of media basket,
then some floss on top of that, then a little bag of PhosX (phosphate
remover) on top of that. This combination of sponge and floss works great.

 

[CFC]

In my cannister filters i use both plus a few other types of media, i stage my media like this

Ceramic tubes>>>>>>>large mechanical filtration
Coarse fibre media>>>>>>fine mechanical filtration
Eheim efi substrate sphintered glass balls>>>>>bio filtration
Bio foam>>>>>>>bio filtration
Floss>>>>>>>final mechanical filtration

On smaller tanks i use air powered sponge filters and small internal canisters with sponge media.

 

[Tropjunky]

Trop,

What size tank and what brand of filter are you using?

Thanks.

well i use a rena XP2 and my tank is a 2ft one.

 

[Tropjunky]

i think that a good filtration system should be a comination of bio, chemical and machanical filtration methods and for bigger tanks a UV sterlizer.