Habitat - Indoor :: set up of my canister filters

[mdawson808]

I have one cascade 700 and one cascade 1000 in my 60 gallon tank. The water was really clear for about 5-6 days. Now it is a little cloudy. How should I set up the media inside the filter. I saw the forum with the diagrams off different types of filters and it seems like the diagram shows the set up of media different from the owners manual. Anyone know how I should put the media in and any other tips to keep the water really clear. Anything I can add to clear it up?

[steve]

VeipaCray's thread is for media arrangement for filters used with turtles. What type of media do you have now? What's in your tank? Do you feed in thank? How much water is in there?

[mdawson808]

I have the black sponge, white pillow stuffing and the bag of media the filter came with. I have sand in the tank 3 fake plants 1 fake rock that has a sort of cave for the turtles to go in. The water is filled basically to the top, and yes I feed in the tank. Does everyone feed outside the tank?

[steve]

It sometimes depends on what you're feeding. Some foods/treats are an absolute mess. How often do you change the water?

[mdawson808]

Partial water changes once a week, but I emptied the tank last Tuesday put sand in it and filled it back up so it hasn't been that long looks clear from the front but looking in the side it is cloudy

[steve]

You really don't have anything for biomedia. I'm not sure why it would look cloudy from just the side... maybe it's just a perspective thing?

[mdawson808]

Im not sure, I took the fake cave out to see if for some reason that was the case because the water was clear until after I put that thing in. I also used this accu clear stuff. Hopefully it works.

[VeipaCray]

I think you hit the nail on the head Steve... no bio media. The cascade comes with a bag of carbon media. Why from just the side? Perhaps the glass on the side is slightly different and the bacteria bloom is able to stick to the glass. It wouldn't surprise me if the aquarium manufacturers used a slightly lesser quality glass for the sides knowing most people will view from the longest piece of glass.

Accu Clear is a bonding agent. It's designed to make free floating particles heavier so they sink and make the water clear. Your tank is cycling - you have a bacteria bloom causing your cloudiness, not free floating particles. The API accu clear will do nothing to help...but now you have some unknown chemical substance in your water too.

You definitely want to follow the diagrams I have on the filter media thread. I can explain the logic to the diagrams on that thread if it helps...

According to the Cascade directions(step 3), the water flows from the bottom up in the cascade filters. The water will pass through the media baskets in a definite order... starting with the bottom first.

The first thing we want to do is trap larger debris with Mechanical filtration to keep the rest of the filter from getting full of large amounts of gunk. This will also prevent the filter motor from getting clogged. Coarse foam sponge is the mechanical filtration used here.

The second filter media we want the water to flow through is the chemical media. Chemical media will remove dissolved organics from the water - removes odors and makes the water clear from tannins and other organic compounds.

The third and final media is biological media. Bio media is porous material that provides surface area for nitrifying bacteria. it's job is to break down ammonia -->nitrites-->nitrates. We want this media last in the water flow to keep it as clean as possible. If the bio media is gunked up, the available surface area is decreased and the media becomes less effective. Bio Media should make up the largest percentage of your filtration media.


The Penn-Plax Cascade directions make no logical sense. They say in step three... the water should flow through a floss pad, then carbon, then another floss pad then a coarse sponge.
Floss pads will trap really fine particles... like sand. Floss doesn't just trap fine particles... it traps all particles so it clogs quickly. If the first thing in the water path is floss... it will trap all of the fine particles and clog up making you need to clean the filter constantly. The carbon is second.... this is fine. Continuing to follow the water path, another floss pad is next. Why? the first one will trap most everything and get clogged before this one gets to do anything. Last in the water path is coarse foam. EH? So we have two floss pads BEFORE a coarse sponge? What's the sponge going to do if it's last.... NOTHING. There's no bio media provided by penn plax and the directions are rubbish.

Because floss pads clog up so quick... I suggest you use them only for water polishing. That is a temporary filter setup designed to trap particles like sand and clarify the water. You don't really want to run floss in your filter on a regular basis. It's great at trapping fine particles, but it does clog very quickly.

If you do want to keep the floss in there... put it above the sponge. So starting from the bottom.... Water---> coarse sponge ---> floss ---> carbon ---> bio media ---> tank

[mdawson808]

Alright I am going to try that but I am still unsure of what the bio media and coarse sponge are. The carbon is the nylon mesh bag correct? The floss is the white layer that looks like polyfill? The black sponge is that the coarse sponge? What is the bio media?

[VeipaCray]

back sponge = coarse sponge
floss = the white polyfill looking layer (some people just use regular ol' polyfill for this too)
carbon = back in mesh bag.

Bio media you may have to buy. Any local pet store carries it. It doesn't really matter much what brand you get... it's just to provide surface area. They all work about the same.

Here's a few good pictures...
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/p ... atid=15433

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/p ... catid=4173

Here's the Penn Plax brand bio media (again brand doesn't matter... get the cheapest one)
http://www.petco.com/product/106753/Pen ... erralID=NA

[dksharktooth]

Black coarse sponge is bio media for cascade canister filter. It claims to provide large surface area for colonization of beneficial bacteria. I have a cascade 1200 with 4 filter trays and I run 4 white floss pads for water polishing, 3 black coarse sponges on top of the white floss pads, and 1 bag of bio rings & carbon on top of a white floss pad (the bottom tray that gets hit by water first). Hope this helps.

[waterloo]

so glad i found this post!
I have the canister 1000 filter too and is confused with media choices and how often to replace them. Originally bought it for the big tank for my 2RES, but end up using it for freshwater fish. And after 2 months the water had a green tinge to it, not cloudy, just green. Now 8 months later, it's green brownish.

First question: the bio-media, I have the plastic balls and the ceramic rings, do they need to have a lot of room (to move around) to work or tightly packed into the trays are fine? Seachem matrix is something similar to this right?

Second: is there media that i can use without replacing? I read somewhere for seachem purigen can be washed in bleach and reused.

Thirdly: So if i have both the above media, i don't need the carbon bag? I will still have the floss pads.

thank you!

[steve]

The bio media does not need to move. I wouldn't over pack it so that it would restrict water flow. Bio media does not need to be replaced, it should last years.

Purigen (it's not bio media) can be reused for a year or so.

Carbon is the only thing that can remove chlorine and chloramines from the water. Water conditioners can neutralize it but it adds potentially harmful chemicals to the water.

[waterloo]

Thank you Steve.
so you mean nothing can replace carbon?

all the other things i can mix n match, as long as I let course sponge be the first layer?

[steve]

As far as I know, nothing can replace carbon. Carbon in bulk or house filter won't be too much. Carbon can also remove other contaminates in the water.

You'd want to stick to the sponge arrangement as recommended.