Bio balls and ceramic rings in the same tray?

I admit it, I'm clueless. I'm setting up my first canister filter. I bought a media kit that had carbon, bio balls, and ceramic rings. I decided to buy some Seachem matrix after reading so many good things about it and that's going to be here Monday. I now have extra either bio balls or ceramic rings. Can I just thow them both in the same tray?

I'm going to go blue filter and white filter in the bottom tray, carbon in the next tray, ceramic rings and bio balls in the next tray, and then cap it off with the matrix in the top tray? Sound ok?

also, do you put the white filter pad in each tray along the way or just in the first couple of trays?

 

just the first couple of trays for the sponges.... and yes all biological filtration media can go in the same tray


sounds great man

 

Ok, great! Thanks for the quick response. I appreciate it!

 

np man

 

I now have 4 SunSun canisters. I did a lot of homework before I got them. My lowest tray has coarse blue sponges topped with one white sponge. My next trays are lined with with white sponges covered with Matrix. My top tray has white sponge, a little bit of matrix and two PurIgen packets covered with thin piece of polishing media.

I have bio balls that came with a kit (I bought from Amazon) under my lowest tray. I heard the bio balls from my kit were inferior to Matrix, but I did not want to ditch them.

I clean my canisters every 10-12 days. I don't use carbon, although one of them has a Chemi-pure elite bag in them,which is a long lasting carbon. Not sure if it really works.

Good luck to you. Keep us posted.

 

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I clean my canisters every 10-12 days. I don't use carbon, although one of them has a Chemi-pure elite bag in them,which is a long lasting carbon. Not sure if it really works.

Good luck to you. Keep us posted.

Why do you clean so often? I am setting up a canister now, was hoping I could keep my 1 month or more frequency (load for load, and I am well under fish per tank guidelines).

 

2Dogs,

Because after I first got my canister I learned that many breeders don't use canisters. I asked a breeder I trust and respect who explained to me that canisters can harbor anaerobic bacteria growing in canisters that can cause "unexplained death" in the tanks.

I asked the breeder to elaborate on FishLore, but the breeder refused saying that in the past the breeder has been posting on Fishlore, but was confronted by rudeness hostility by a fishlore poster and did not want to deal with it again.

I left it at that.

However, I can tell you that, as my breeder guru said, after 10 days canister starts getting pretty filthy and clogged up.

I find it is much easier to rinse it up in the used tank water every 10-12 days, than to do it once a month or every 2-3 months. I don't think I could get my sponges clean enough to return them to the canister if they have not been rinsed for 2-3 months.

I have a sneaking suspicion that sooner or later our beloved canisters will go the way of under gravel filters, wildly popular once upon a time. Lol.

Good luck to you. Would love to hear what conclusion you will come to after running your canister for a while.

 

I now have 4 SunSun canisters. I did a lot of homework before I got them. My lowest tray has coarse blue sponges topped with one white sponge. My next trays are lined with with white sponges covered with Matrix. My top tray has white sponge, a little bit of matrix and two PurIgen packets covered with thin piece of polishing media.

I have bio balls that came with a kit (I bought from Amazon) under my lowest tray. I heard the bio balls from my kit were inferior to Matrix, but I did not want to ditch them.

I clean my canisters every 10-12 days. I don't use carbon, although one of them has a Chemi-pure elite bag in them,which is a long lasting carbon. Not sure if it really works.

Good luck to you. Keep us posted.

I have the sunsun 304B. Sounds like we have the same thing because I bought mine off of Amazon also.

I did set up my filter last night like I outlined earlier. Saturday night was my only night to have time to get everything done so I went ahead and got it running. I plan on popping it open tomorrow to dump the Matrix in the top tray (I left that one empty last night) after it's delivered.

I'm also curious, why every 10-12 days? I was planning on a monthly clean based off of my research. This is my first canister like I said, I've always used a HOB on my 20 gallon. This is my first big tank woooo!

 

I now have 4 SunSun canisters. I did a lot of homework before I got them. My lowest tray has coarse blue sponges topped with one white sponge. My next trays are lined with with white sponges covered with Matrix. My top tray has white sponge, a little bit of matrix and two PurIgen packets covered with thin piece of polishing media.

I have bio balls that came with a kit (I bought from Amazon) under my lowest tray. I heard the bio balls from my kit were inferior to Matrix, but I did not want to ditch them.

I clean my canisters every 10-12 days. I don't use carbon, although one of them has a Chemi-pure elite bag in them,which is a long lasting carbon. Not sure if it really works.

Good luck to you. Keep us posted.

The blue and white sponges that are made for these and the aquatops or did you cut your own?

 

I clean my 304's about once a month. I think 10-12 days is not necessary unless your fish stock requires it. I keep community tanks with tons of plants but I know goldfish for example are very dirty so they would require more frequent cleaning. I watch the flow on my filters and clean the sponges and rinse the bio media when I see the flow slow down. I would say it depends on your bioload how often you should clean.

 

The blue and white sponges that are made for these and the aquatops or did you cut your own?

The blue sponges I bought, the white sponges are mixes, some I bought, some I cut.

I discovered an interesting thing: blue sponges stay the same size after use, the white sponges shrink and leave free passage way for the water. Next time I will cut them larger.

One of my canisters has 3 blue sponges in the lowest tray. The lowest sponge is no longer blue and no amount of rinsing made it blue again. The two blue sponges on top of it are perfect blue, while white sponges were very clean. I like that a lot. It means water going out of my canister is quite clean.

 

Just a note for those who buy polishing sponges, in the old days we used filter floss that is nothing more than 100% polyester batting you can buy at a fabric or craft store for a couple dollars. My canisters have 2 blue sponges in the bottom and sachem matrix al the way to the top, above the matrix in the top tray I use about an inch of polyester for polishing.

 

My HOB filter that I have set up for my 6.6 gallon tank has a black sponge, blue bond filter pad (love that stuff) and one of those plastic pot scrubber thingies (no soap or antibacterial in it - just a cheap thing) at the top for bacteria to hang out in. I don't know why you couldn't use the little plastic pot scrubbers instead of bio-balls in a canister filter. They do the same thing.

 

My HOB filter that I have set up for my 6.6 gallon tank has a black sponge, blue bond filter pad (love that stuff) and one of those plastic pot scrubber thingies (no soap or antibacterial in it - just a cheap thing) at the top for bacteria to hang out in. I don't know why you couldn't use the little plastic pot scrubbers instead of bio-balls in a canister filter. They do the same thing.

Many people do and it will work, the reason for bio balls is the amount of surface area available for BB, then ceramic media is even better and then products like Sachem Matrix (I know others make similar but I'm not familiar) has even higher surface area for BB. You can use practically anything porous in the trays/filter for BB it really comes down to how much surface area for BB to grow on to improve efficiency!

 

Many people do and it will work, the reason for bio balls is the amount of surface area available for BB, then ceramic media is even better and then products like Sachem Matrix (I know others make similar but I'm not familiar) has even higher surface area for BB. You can use practically anything porous in the trays/filter for BB it really comes down to how much surface area for BB to grow on to improve efficiency!

Interesting. Then I suppose someone could go to the local hardware store, pick up a clay pot and break it into pieces and use that. Although I think it'd be rather messy.

 

yes and I have actually read of people on the forum using clay pots lol. Almost anything that is porous and doesn't leach anything can be used. Even the sponges are both mechanical and biological but when they need to be replaced you loose the BB.