How I fill my Seachem Tidal 75 with media now

I have switched up my media in my Seachem Tidal 75 after finding out that Matrix was a poor choice over the last year. Sorry.

Some instant noticeable differences occurred also that I will mention below.

First, here is the old media removed.




At the bottom of the basket I had the standard foam insert, then 2 Pinky Flosses. Next was some fine filter Polyfill (at top) followed by 4 bags of Matrix. The Tidal was turned all the way down to minimum about 20% of the flow rate. Mainly because I thought slow flow through the filter was better. If I turned up the flow, it would overflow completely even with the ¼” holes drilled in the basket, so the flow was reduced to about 20-30%.

Here is the new set up. First was to increase the size of the holes in the basket to 5/16 inch from ¼ inch for more flow through the new media.




After that was to cut out the new Poret foam I am switching too.




I am using 3 layers of 1inch blue 10 ppI foam on the bottom and 3 layers of 1inch black 20 ppI foam for the top 3 layers. 10 ppI is the mechanical and the 20 ppI (or above) is the biological.

After a quick rise, just stuff it in the basket.





Six 1 inch pieces fill the basket perfect to the top of the outflow.

Here is some information for Tidal filters that you should know. The inside basket is NOT a perfect square. The difference from the bottom width to the top is a good ½ inch. So you need to make sure that you really don’t cut the foam the same width. You can add ¼” to the width with no issues. Measure twice, cut once.

Once installed on the tank I noticed an immediate difference. Not touching the flow the water came out just fine. Now I turned up the flow and it came out even better! It started to overflow around the 90% flow rate (each notch on the knob is about a 10% change).

I now turned the knob 2 notches down from max and it is perfect for me now. Much smoother outflow because the old media was being clogged up and restricting the flow. So now I have about a 300 gph flow rate.

After 14 hours overnight, the water is perfect with no issues, as expected with new data received.

I made this change after learning that you don’t want to clean your filters regularly or too often. The longer your filter ‘gunks’ up the better water you will have. I expect to only clean this foam every 6 to 12 months after the filter slows down, realistically 4 months though. Even then only a quick rinse under water and they are ready to go.

Next is my Sunsun canister filter media change out.

Done! How I fill my Sunsun 303B Canister with media now

 

With you up to the 6-12 month servicing ..
I have been sponges long time ..
I like how my AquaClear pops them up like toast when they need to be cleaned ...
I often still procrastinate but never going to get 6 months ..or atleast I don't want to ignore my tank that long ..
Enjoy..

 

With you up to the 6-12 month servicing ..
I have been sponges long time ..
I like how my AquaClear pops them up like toast when they need to be cleaned ...
I often still procrastinate but never going to get 6 months ..or atleast I don't want to ignore my tank that long ..
Enjoy..

I did say 'expect'. But the good thing is with the Tidals, is that if it is starting to slow, I can just turn the flow up more.

 

I like how my AquaClear pops them up like toast when they need to be cleaned ...

That's when I usually give my AC's a cleaning as well. I think I had an old thread about the love hate relationship with AC filters

 

I also have a tidal filter it’s the 110 and I remember when you did what you did with yours. Going to the slow flow to help remove nitrate. Sorry I never understood that. But the one thing I think your missing since your discovery is both matrix and bio-home will still grow bb. They are both porous enough for bb growth and because of the size of the tidal filter what you had n there was more than enough to keep that tank clean. Remember you can only grow so much bb. It not like if you add more media you’ll get more bb. Bb grows by what the waste load is. My filter is still full of that stuff. It’s been running 2 yrs now with absolutely no problems. I rinse out a filter every other week and run my filters at full flow. Those media’s are still good media for growing bb. Yes the whole denitrification was just for sales. Yes sponges are great but for me I think the durability of the matrix and bio-home is what’s best. This stuff will takes years probably the lifetime of the filter to break down. That pretty much means I’ll never replace this stuff. That’s why I originally bought it. Again sponges are great but they do break down and need to be replaced. Just a shame to throw away your bb like that. I never check for nitrates. Sorry they just don’t matter. Unless your trying to never do water changes. Which to me is a major mistake. Water changes are a must for fish keeping.

 

I also have a tidal filter it’s the 110 and I remember when you did what you did with yours. Going to the slow flow to help remove nitrate. Sorry I never understood that. But the one thing I think your missing since your discovery is both matrix and bio-home will still grow bb.

Yes, totally agree. Just not anaerobic bacteria like they state and I beleived at the time. Aerobic beneficial bacteria any media will grow. Just depends on how much you want to support the bioload in the tank. Not too worried about the changing of these sponges since they go 5-10 years. Then an easy swap out... if I still have any tanks then.

 

Awesome!

Keep us posted with updates

 

I rinse out a filter every other week and run my filters at full flow.

Wow, you run your filter at full flow? If I tried that it would overflow.. How are you achieving this? I read here from another member that you want a slow flow rate with the Tidals... I have the 75 and like it so far (almost 2 months..)

 

Wow, you run your filter at full flow? If I tried that it would overflow.. How are you achieving this? I read here from another member that you want a slow flow rate with the Tidals... I have the 75 and like it so far (almost 2 months..)

As stated above, not quite full flow. That would be a little too much turbulence for my 75 gallon tank. To get better flow you need to do the above. Drill out the Tidal 75 basket. Here is more info what I did a while ago.

See here on how to customize Seachem Tidal filters.

Easy Basket Customize For Seachem Tidal Filters | Filters and Filtration 393988

I have increased the hole size to 5/16 of an inch now. Just fill it with good porous media like foam or pot scrubbies. The water has to flow through your media, not around it.

See here: Bio Media Comparison Information

What is in your filter for media?

 

Yes there is some overflow. Still no problem .

 

Yes there is some overflow. Still no problem .

When these do overflow just turn them down a bit so they don't. Just means folks have too much restrictive media in the basket.

 

What is in your filter for media?

The blue foam that came with it, then a less porous (#30 I think?) second foam, then a bag of Seachem's Purigen then a bag of Matrix.. too much?

 

The blue foam that came with it, then a less porous (#30 I think?) second foam, then a bag of Seachem's Purigen then a bag of Matrix.. too much?

Your foam is good. The Matrix is restrictive if it's a lot like I had above and could only run the filter almost all the way on low. I just put in better media, all foam, and all it good. You could use your foam and the media mentioned above in the link for better flow. Purigen is only needed if you have water quality issues.

 

Your foam is good. The Matrix is restrictive if it's a lot like I had above and could only run the filter almost all the way on low. I just put in better media, all foam, and all it good. You could use your foam and the media mentioned above in the link for better flow. Purigen is only needed if you have water quality issues.

This is interesting.. just saw you comparison chart of the medias... I am pretty new at this.. everything i've read has praised the Matrix rings... so I should drill some holes (which I noted in your previous post a month or two ago, but just haven't gotten around to it.. ), add the craft mesh to the skimmer (is that just a piece of plastic mesh from a craft store?) and keep my media to the blue Seachem foam and the #30 PPI foam?

I used purigen because I've had to deal with stained water from a new piece of driftwood that makes my water tea colored... seems to be getting a bit better now and frequent water changes helps.

 

Well more foam would be good. However 30 ppI will clog faster than 20 or 10 ppI like I said above. I'm not sure what the original blue foam is but I'm pretty sure it's not 30 ppi. I would guess 20 ppi. You could just use your foam and cheap pot scrubbies as those are between 20-30ppi. Whatever you want...

 

Thanks very much...

On another note, since you're the "Cichlidude" could you recommend a peaceful chichlid family member fish (other than Angelfish as I already have 2), that are peaceful, don't grow large and compatible with small tetras, corys, etc...

 

Thanks very much...

On another note, since you're the "Cichlidude" could you recommend a peaceful chichlid family member fish (other than Angelfish as I already have 2), that are peaceful, don't grow large and compatible with small tetras, corys, etc...

Haaaa... well I have jumped ship and only have community fish now. Suggest you start a new thread in the fish section and ask that question.

 

thanks!

 

I've removed my matrix and purigen and just have blue foam that came with it just to see how it performs.. boy you can really crank the flow rate... I will get around to drilling the holes soon.. I've noticed an improvement in water clarity recently.. I might put back the matrix after I drill holes and see how that goes.. and add a 30PPI above the standard blue foam.. thanks for the tips above..

 

Really interesting - thanks for sharing (I came here from your bio media comparison post). I have an Ehiem classic, looking at maximising its efficiency. That's looking like adding more sponge and K1 media - it hasn't taken long to realise the fine filter (also filter floss fine) sponge that comes stock in the eheim classic just gunks up ULTRA fast and gets squished anyway by the bio above it.
Question, I'm finding the PPI information hard to find on the Juwel website (or on the sponge box I have). I have a Juwel (bioplus) Large fine filter sponge. It just says it's "bioflow 6.0". Does anyone know how many PPI these sponges have? From looking at it, it's definitely a bit denser than the course sponge that comes with the eheim classic.
Thanks for sharing your findings and helping others

 

Hello. I checked and didn't find any info on that sponge. However you could contact the manufacturer directly from their web site here.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, Cichlidude. I'll do just that.
Looks like filling my eheim classic 150 with sponges might be the best way to maximise filtration efficiency

 

Thanks, Cichlidude. I'll do just that.
Looks like filling my eheim classic 150 with sponges might be the best way to maximise filtration efficiency

Great this is How I fill my Sunsun 303B Canister with media now

Ah one more thing if you plan on foam. The foam must be cut to fit. Can't just put sponge blocks in as the water will just flow around those. Need them to fit tight all the way around.

 

I have not yet drilled the holes in my Seachem. Might get around to it this weekend. I do still have a bit of an issue with water clarity.. the water is just a little hazy. I've never really had that nice gin-clear water... almost 4 months running.. I recently disconnected my sponge and cranked the Tidal with less media. But to be honest, there's virtually no change.

What might be causing this?

 

I have not yet drilled the holes in my Seachem. Might get around to it this weekend. I do still have a bit of an issue with water clarity.. the water is just a little hazy. I've never really had that nice gin-clear water... almost 4 months running.. I recently disconnected my sponge and cranked the Tidal with less media. But to be honest, there's virtually no change.

What might be causing this?

Bacterial bloom maybe. Ineffective filter media taking a long time to oxidize any ammonia? pH level? Don't know what you have as media...

 

I have the seachem tidal blue foam and a black sponge on top of that (30PPI)

Maybe I am feeding them too much?

 

I have the seachem tidal blue foam and a black sponge on top of that (30PPI)

OK, well it's going to take some time. pH level? Need to look at cloudy water issues. Could be a few things. I changed out my Tidal 75 and my Sunsun Canister with all new media on my 75 gallon tank, at the same time, and finally never had any cloudy water for the first time in a year.

Edit - Well for 3 days after any filter maintenance that is. Usually gone in 3 days or less.

Maybe I am feeding them too much?

And that is probably the number 1 reason for cloudy water.

 

I'll cut back on feeding and see how that goes... I sometimes wonder if I have too many fish.

 

Great this is How I fill my Sunsun 303B Canister with media now

Thanks yeah I read through all your recent posts - fantastically clear.

I need to put a pre-filer sponge on my intake for sure too.
One thing: I'm not sure if filling the bottom of the eheim classic 150 (below the bottom grate) is a good idea though, leaving it free seems to allow the water to enter the full bottom surface of the bottom course sponge. When I had a sponge cut to fit down there the area closest to the water inflow hole clogged up - perhaps a pre-filter would help stop this though. It's one of the smallest canister filter out, I think it'd be a different story with something bigger.

Don't quite have enough sponge to fill the whole canister - so I guess I'll just top it up full with either a bit of matrix I have or some ceramic rings.

I'll cut the sponge for a super fit for sure, thanks for checking though

 

One thing: I'm not sure if filling the bottom of the eheim classic 150 (below the bottom grate) is a good idea though, leaving it free seems to allow the water to enter the full bottom surface of the bottom course sponge.

I would agree not putting anything under that bottom grate. I don't know that much about Eheim, but yes it is there for water to be distributed before being moved up. Most newer canisters have trays so that is not a issue.

 

Thanks yeah I read through all your recent posts - fantastically clear.

I need to put a pre-filer sponge on my intake for sure too.
One thing: I'm not sure if filling the bottom of the eheim classic 150 (below the bottom grate) is a good idea though, leaving it free seems to allow the water to enter the full bottom surface of the bottom course sponge. When I had a sponge cut to fit down there the area closest to the water inflow hole clogged up - perhaps a pre-filter would help stop this though. It's one of the smallest canister filter out, I think it'd be a different story with something bigger.

Don't quite have enough sponge to fill the whole canister - so I guess I'll just top it up full with either a bit of matrix I have or some ceramic rings.

I'll cut the sponge for a super fit for sure, thanks for checking though

On the classic line That space is actually made for efimech, the ceramic ring looking mechanical media, if you use this stuff it catches a Lot of the bigger detritus and allows water to flow throughout the holes and up through the sponges. It really catches a lot of muck, you’d really be surprised! I use efimech in my 2217 and my 2026 and it really works great!

 

On the classic line That space is actually made for efimech, the ceramic ring looking mechanical media, if you use this stuff it catches a Lot of the bigger detritus and allows water to flow throughout the holes and up through the sponges. It really catches a lot of muck, you’d really be surprised! I use efimech in my 2217 and my 2026 and it really works great!

Ah yes I've seen people put these in the larger classics in the bottom. I ended up crafting a solution. I cable-tied a bunch of ceramic rings to my own (plastic planter pot) grate. I can see a bunch of advantages, time will tell if they actually are advantages in operation though.
1) The bottom grate is easier to take out because the black cable tie running over the top works as a great finger handle to pull it up with.
2) With its ceramic ring 'feet' the grate stops the above sponges and media compressing and blocking the bottom of the canister's water distribution zone - what the original gate did anyway.
3) With the ceramic rings attached, they come up WITH the grate, so no needing to turn the canister upside down to pour them out - will make maintenance and cleaning way easier.
4) Having ceramic rings down there work as mechanical filtration, add surface area, but still allow unrestricted water flow further up the canister.
5) As with the original gate, with the open sides it's easy to just look in to see if there are any big obstructions in that bottom section.

Also, this frees up the original green eheim grate. I've put it in the foot of a stocking (feet pointing up) and filled the stocking with media. This keeps the media FLAT on top of the media level directly under it. I find media in bags waste a lot of space (especially up the sides of narrow round canisters like the eheim 150).

Overall, very happy! We will see how it works out.

Here's some pics!

 

I have switched up my media in my Seachem Tidal 75 after finding out that Matrix was a poor choice over the last year. Sorry.

Some instant noticeable differences occurred also that I will mention below.

First, here is the old media removed.

View attachment 649527

At the bottom of the basket I had the standard foam insert, then 2 Pinky Flosses. Next was some fine filter Polyfill (at top) followed by 4 bags of Matrix. The Tidal was turned all the way down to minimum about 20% of the flow rate. Mainly because I thought slow flow through the filter was better. If I turned up the flow, it would overflow completely even with the ¼” holes drilled in the basket, so the flow was reduced to about 20-30%.

Here is the new set up. First was to increase the size of the holes in the basket to 5/16 inch from ¼ inch for more flow through the new media.

View attachment 649528

After that was to cut out the new Poret foam I am switching too.

View attachment 649529

I am using 3 layers of 1inch blue 10 ppI foam on the bottom and 3 layers of 1inch black 20 ppI foam for the top 3 layers. 10 ppI is the mechanical and the 20 ppI (or above) is the biological.

After a quick rise, just stuff it in the basket.


View attachment 649530

Six 1 inch pieces fill the basket perfect to the top of the outflow.

Here is some information for Tidal filters that you should know. The inside basket is NOT a perfect square. The difference from the bottom width to the top is a good ½ inch. So you need to make sure that you really don’t cut the foam the same width. You can add ¼” to the width with no issues. Measure twice, cut once.

Once installed on the tank I noticed an immediate difference. Not touching the flow the water came out just fine. Now I turned up the flow and it came out even better! It started to overflow around the 90% flow rate (each notch on the knob is about a 10% change).

I now turned the knob 2 notches down from max and it is perfect for me now. Much smoother outflow because the old media was being clogged up and restricting the flow. So now I have about a 300 gph flow rate.

After 14 hours overnight, the water is perfect with no issues, as expected with new data received.

I made this change after learning that you don’t want to clean your filters regularly or too often. The longer your filter ‘gunks’ up the better water you will have. I expect to only clean this foam every 6 to 12 months after the filter slows down. Even then only a quick rinse under water and they are ready to go.

Next is my Sunsun canister filter media change out.

Done! How I fill my Sunsun 303B Canister with media now

This may be a silly question but was there a reasoning/advantage of using multiple 1in media vs buying thicker media from the start?

 

This may be a silly question but was there a reasoning/advantage of using multiple 1in media vs buying thicker media from the start?

Nope, just a little versatility I guess. If I made a mistake cutting, less waste.

 

Nope, just a little versatility I guess. If I made a mistake cutting, less waste.

Very true. I figured it’s more flexibility for different filters/setup too. Just wanted to know if it was performance related or not!

thanks!