In what way your water flows trough your medias in your Filter ?

[MaloK]

Thanks to all for your responses Good food for thoughts.

Mainly looking for ideas on mechanical media I could use, I put bio-filtration first then mechanic.

Sadly planted filters wont work in my cave. And there not enough place in the tank to have any kind of internal filtration.

I would like to find something that clogs a little slower, At the moment I have to clear the mechanic filtration 4-5 times for every 1 bio-filtration cleanup... But if I could get a little more mileage per maintenance, I'd love that.

So basically what I retain from all your answers, I could replace my medium sponge for a coarse and the water should remain as clear and clean ? Seems difficult since each time I clear it, it's like a block of clay when I press it.

I fear that if I go with all coarse sponges, all this mulm will remain in the tank over time.

 

[JackGulley]

I have a fluval HOB and I’ve honestly never understood how the water flow is supposed to work. I have a bag of crushed coral sand on top for hardness, then carbon, then a sponge for biofiltration. But as far as I can tell, there’s nothing stopping the water from just flowing across the top without touching any of those? Granted my tank has been cycled for months so I can only assume it works, even if it don’t get it.

 

[MaloK]

I have a fluval HOB and I’ve honestly never understood how the water flow is supposed to work. I have a bag of crushed coral sand on top for hardness, then carbon, then a sponge for biofiltration. But as far as I can tell, there’s nothing stopping the water from just flowing across the top without touching any of those? Granted my tank has been cycled for months so I can only assume it works, even if it don’t get it.

Some hobs have the water flow from bottom to top like Aquaclear, typical hobs have the flow from back to front like your Fluval and other pretty rare are flowing sideways. By inspecting the channels for the flow inside the box you can get a good idea how it goes.

The concept of having a space to overflow the water over the media is in case of clogging, it's there to prevent the filter from overflowing and draining your aquarium on the floor.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have uses HOBs, canister, air powered cubefilters and mattenfilters. The only thing I have not done is a sump system.

The most important thing to learn is that a filter actually do not filter anything. It pumps water out of the tanke and then returns. This helps with current and aeration by aggitating the surface of the water.

Nor doe most of the media filter anything. What filters the water is bacteria and other microorganisms.The filter provides a place for the media or as in a cubefilters or matten filter, the foam media is the filter housing that hosts the microorganisms.

Once I discovered the benefits of large amounts of Poret foam I was hooked. I use it in my HOBs and my canisters. I use it as cubefilters and mattens too. Why does this high quality foam matter?

One big reason is the urban aquarium myth that mechanical media is how to removed particles from the water. The clearest water I have is in the tanks with mattnfilters of a lot of Poret cucbefilters. The reason for this is most of what mechanical media is supposed to trap to be removed is organic. And good old mother nature has a way of dealing with this. Things eat it. If you have never done a mattenfilter, you will not know what comes out of the back side of the foam. It is basically silt. most of what goes in gets broken down by organisms eating it as it passes through the foam.

What remains is a very fine particle size. Every week as part of my water change and maint. routine is to spend about 30 seconds sucking out the silt behind the matten and then another 45 or so seconds running a siphon hose across the front side to pull off the most recent particles there. This helps to extend the amount of time before one need to rinse out a matten. This can be as long as 5 year, maybe more

I have one canister I loaded 100% with Poret 20 ppi foam at the suggestion of Dr. Tanner who is the USA person who sells Poret. It is one of 3 canisters I have but the only one with Poret as the media. I have had that canister running for about 8 years now and have only cleanrd it once. My other two cansister are cleaned twice a year.

I also have Poret foam blocks in many of my remaining Aquaclear HOBs. (Now 16 down from 28.)

I always suggest that people read this article to get a really good understanding about how tank filtration should work. http://www.swisstropicals.com/library/aquarium-biofiltration/

edited to fix typos and poor spelling