Fluval 405 And 305 Externals

[Tiger Tiger]

Hi
I use wool bought cheap in my Eheim externals , now surely there is a cheaper way to buy your own sponges for the above.

Or perhaps wool will do?

 

[rabbut]

I would not use wool in a Fluval exturnal, as it will make an already high-maintanance exturnal yet more high-maintanance, due to the Tiny surface area in the baskets, and the fact that there will be nothing to remove particles before the wool if you use in the the foam pre-frame...

I'd use corse sponge in the pre-frame, medium in the bottom basket and fine in the middle/middle-bottom basket, with bio-ceramic and/or bioballs in the top (and middle-top basket in the 405) This will stop them from needing weekly cleans if you ran wool, to monthly with that set-up

All the best
Rabbut

 

[SuperColey1]

Many people I know buy the pond filter sheets - green/black/blue or similar (£10 for 3 different coarseness 2ft square sheets) and then use their originals as templates.

For £10 you should then get at least 4 pads from each sheet.

AC

 

[three-fingers]

I use filter wool in my 305, works great, replace it every month or so (though you could just wash it under tap water).

I just cut the big sheet into lots of little rectangles that fit in the bottom two baskets, layer them on top of each other.

I the bags of foa at the lfs for £1.85 and that gives me enough to refill the baskets 3 times and have some spare.

 

[Tiger Tiger]

I use filter wool in my 305, works great, replace it every month or so (though you could just wash it under tap water).

I just cut the big sheet into lots of little rectangles that fit in the bottom two baskets, layer them on top of each other.

I the bags of foa at the lfs for £1.85 and that gives me enough to refill the baskets 3 times and have some spare.

Wash in Tap water

 

[three-fingers]

It's just the filter wool for mechanical filtration, it gets clogged up with dirt to the point where you need to replace it too.

It's not the main biological media, where the bulk of the bacteria is

Cleaning the mechanical filtration under the tap and changing it is fine.

 

[andyj]

I've had my both my Fluval 304's running for over 3 years now, and I've never changed the media once

The trick is to throughly rinse the sponges in 'old' tank water every now and then to remove all of the detritus, and then just fit them back into the filter.

I use ceramics in all 3 baskets of my 304's, as bacterial filteration is far more important to me, in terms of keeping the Ammonia and Nitrite levels at 0, than mechanical filtration which just keeps the water 'clear'.......

Just my 2p's worth

 

[rabbut]

^^That would also work, but my recomendetion of mostly foam would also have plenty of Bio Filtration, as sponge does a good job of that, and also would not need replacements in the foams untill they literaly feel apart... The type of wool I use in most of my filters tends to disintegrate when washed under the tap or in buckets with old tank water...