Fluval 205

[quartex2003]

Ok TFF folks,

I've made my first ever Ebay purchase a Fluval Roma 125 which came with a 205 external filter. As I've never had an external filter previously the question is what filter media is best and in what order do you arrange your filter media ?

Any other relevant advice on the subject would be most welcome.

Darren

 

[Swizz]

Congrats on your purchase, Qurtex I have a 405. And in my trays.. I keep three trays of Biomax and Poly wool. The wool being at the bottom

 

[Tizer]

305 here, 3 trays of biomax also, but i have wool at the top if i need it.

 

[jnms]

I have a 305 and a 405. I use sponge or wool in the bottom trays and biomax in the rest, with a small layer of wool at the top.

 

[minnnt]

The way my 205 came from pets at home was carbon at the bottom, then 2 biomax. I swapped out the carbon bag after about 6 months due to it falling apart. Replaced it with ammonia removal bag. unsure as to whether this is correct but it worked fine for me.

 

[waterdrop]

I would not recommend an ammonia removal resin for a filter that has not yet been cycled. In many cases the resin removes so much ammonia that the bacteria never have enough "food" to develop.

Often a beginner will then ask the question: "Hey, if there are chemicals that are more effective at removing ammonia than bacteria then why not use that!" The answer is that the amount of ammonia a resin can remove is finite. Once it has removed as much ammonia as it can it will abruptly stop working and ammonia will skyrocket. This can result in a sudden fish kill. This is a biological filter is superior.

So are there accepted uses for ammonia removal resins? Yes, in fact, with experience and some fine tuning, they can be used near the final stage of filtration (final in the water path within the filter that is) and will ideally clean the final traces of ammonia that have not been used by the bacteria, thus making less available to trigger algae. The problem is that (in my opinion) it takes experience to do this without killing your bacteria, so it is probably better to consider it to be an advanced topic and proceed cautiously.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[quartex2003]

Thanks everyone for your replies I think I will go with Biomax and Poly wool.

Cheers
Darren

 

[minnnt]

I would not recommend an ammonia removal resin for a filter that has not yet been cycled. In many cases the resin removes so much ammonia that the bacteria never have enough "food" to develop.

Often a beginner will then ask the question: "Hey, if there are chemicals that are more effective at removing ammonia than bacteria then why not use that!" The answer is that the amount of ammonia a resin can remove is finite. Once it has removed as much ammonia as it can it will abruptly stop working and ammonia will skyrocket. This can result in a sudden fish kill. This is a biological filter is superior.

So are there accepted uses for ammonia removal resins? Yes, in fact, with experience and some fine tuning, they can be used near the final stage of filtration (final in the water path within the filter that is) and will ideally clean the final traces of ammonia that have not been used by the bacteria, thus making less available to trigger algae. The problem is that (in my opinion) it takes experience to do this without killing your bacteria, so it is probably better to consider it to be an advanced topic and proceed cautiously.

~~waterdrop~~

Good job i didn't recommend it then