Aquatop CF-300: How much media to order?

Thanks for the canister suggestions from my previous post! I've decided to go with the Aquatop CF-300 (SunSun HW302) 3 stage Canister.

While it does come with filter pads, it doesn't come with any other media. I've no idea how big the media trays are, so I'm unsure how much media I'll need. I'll be going with the normal mechanical (pads), chemical (purigen or chemipure?), and biological media(Ceramic rings or bioballs?) and am also taking brand suggestions.

I'm ordering directly from Amazon and hopefully all of the products will be Prime available.. so I'm hoping to make this one order (canister and media).

Thanks for any and all advice and suggestions!

 

I have the 303B. I think the only difference is the uv light. My baskets are 2 3/4 deep by roughly 7.5 squareish. How that helps!

 

Thanks.

It's difficult to measure in ounces how much media I need to fill one of those trays. Can you tell me how many ounces of Fluval Biomax I need? How many ounces of ChemiPure would I need?

 

You can easily fit one box of rings, but less than 2. I don't use chemical filtration unless I need to, so I stuff mine with bio media. The flow is bottom to top, just so you know.

 

Got it

I ended up at my favorite LFS and let John (manager that spoils me) talk me into the CF-400 UV. I had roughly a 40 dollar store credit coming so that took a large chunk of change off the price for everything we bought. 2 bags of Purigen (only 1 at a time in the canister), 2 boxes of the Aquatop bagged Ceramic Rings (I didn't see the BioMax), and I picked up a huge bag of small sized Lava Rock from Home Depot for $3.99 (once I made sure it wasn't pre-treated with anything). I won't be using the entire contents of both boxes of ceramic rings, and the rest will more than likely get stored in my aquatic cabinet or get used elsewhere.

I think I'm going to leave the white and blue pads in the bottom tray, bagged Purigen on top of a white pad in the middle tray, and for the top I'm mixing lava rock and bagged ceramic rings topped with a thin polishing pad. I can't remember where I saw that setup, but I did like it so figured I would give it a go.

Last night I watched an extremely well made video on YouTube about maintenance for the CF-500 UV (he did a phenomenal review in another video, and in yet another video he shows some tips and tricks to lengthen the life of the canister). Not that you need it, but in case anyone else reads the thread and is interested.. he shows 2 ways of customizing the trays. I learned quite a bit about canisters just from viewing the video.

 

So in my cf-300 I have the blue pad in the bottom with polyfil fiber stuffing and all polyfil in the middle tray. The pads that come with it were super thin and fell apart after a few months. Polyfil is available for $7 at amazon and only needs rinsing once a month and will last forever. I also have ceramic rings and biomax in the top tray but it is a very tight fit. I would switch to seachem matrix the next time I replace the media
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So in my cf-300 I have the blue pad in the bottom with polyfil fiber stuffing and all polyfil in the middle tray. The pads that come with it were super thin and fell apart after a few months. Polyfil is available for $7 at amazon and only needs rinsing once a month and will last forever. I also have ceramic rings and biomax in the top tray but it is a very tight fit. I would switch to seachem matrix the next time I replace the media
Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express

Thank you for the tips!

Aye.. I've read about people using the Polyfil. My only concern is weather or not it's pre-treated with fire retardants (is there a warning on the bags?). I do prefer pre-made sheets instead of the stuffing fluffy type of material though (just a personal preference and not that I think one is better over the other)..

I'm not sure how true it is as I've not gone too deeply into research, but I read that Seachem Matrix is actually pumice stone. Both lava rock and pumice are light weight and very porous so either would be ideal for bio media. The lava rock is just much cheaper.

 

I use this stuff and like it I feel like that's better than polyfill. I've also got a cf400uv, with the aquatop brand ceramic rings. It's been working great for me for over a year. Very happy with it.

 

Thanks for the link to the filter pads! I've got them bookmarked, (one of the mods I think recommended those). I like having a lot of options to research.

Any suggestions or recommendations for custom tray setups?

 

I didn't mod my trays. I have 2 bags of bio rings and then the filter pad cut to size that I linked. The best advice I can give you is fill that sucker up with as much water as possible before you try to get it going. Also, you might want to put a towel under it when you first put your lid on.

Petsmart and Petco should have those filter pads.

Sometimes it can be hard to get open for maintenance because it makes a really good seal in there. I've gotten myself wet trying to get it open. I'm sure you'll figure these things out, just trying to pass on my experiences. For the price I think its an amazing filter. I took the outlet bar off of mine so the water just shoots down in to the tank. Aerates the water for me real nice.

 

I use this in my canister sunsun filter. Roll lasts me over a year.

 

Thank you!!