Other Media For Penguin 200

I’m looking to put some different media in my penguin 200 beside the cartridges once my sponge filter is seeded so in like a month or 2. I walked into my local lfs and they switched to freshwater instead of saltwater so now I have a place to really buy things from. I saw the aqua clear filters in action and love how quiet they are and the setup just don’t want to drop 60 bucks on a filter when my penguin is a month old. So what do you guys suggest any of you done such a thing ? And any tips of on slightly cloudy water? I have a penguin 200 at 200 gallons an hr and a sponge for a 60 gallon tank in there and do weekly water changes and still have a slight cloudy water I know it doesn’t look it in the pic

 

As long as there is something for bacteria to cling to, you can pretty much use whatever filter media makes sense and fits in the compartment. I use bags of bio balls or ceramic media on yhe bottom and fill the rest of the compartment with sponge of various degrees of coarseness.

I ditch filter cartridges as soon as I wear out any that come with the filter.

It really has caused no harm.

 

The penguin filter fills from back to front not bottom up that’s why I’m asking don’t know if it matters. And that’s my plan I’m just waiting for my sponge filter to get seeded with good bacteria so I don’t have issues I just got my tank cycled

 

I used the filters that came with my penguin but now I have some sponges and some ceramic pieces and all my readings are good. I rinse them out every few weeks in aquarium water. When I changed over I ripped the blue filter material off the penguin filters and wrapped it around the sponges so that the good bacteria would be transferred.

 

I used the filters that came with my penguin but now I have some sponges and some ceramic pieces and all my readings are good. I rinse them out every few weeks in aquarium water. When I changed over I ripped the blue filter material off the penguin filters and wrapped it around the sponges so that the good bacteria would be transferred.

Hmm okay I’ll have to try that what would work best for both Machanical and bio filtration

 

I have a Marineland 350. I have it as poly-fil, corse spring and bio media. Runs good

 

I have a Marineland 350. I have it as poly-fil, corse spring and bio media. Runs good

What are you running for bio media ? I thinking running a setup like the pic below
Green - filter fiber of a sort
Red - a course media
Yellow -bio media like lava rock or ceramic rings

Just don’t know what to run as bio media .... I want something that’ll host a lot of good bacteria and I’m running a air powered sponge filter in the corner to.

 

What are you running for bio media ? I thinking running a setup like the pic below
Green - filter fiber of a sort
Red - a course media
Yellow -bio media like lava rock or ceramic rings

Just don’t know what to run as bio media .... I want something that’ll host a lot of good bacteria and I’m running a air powered sponge filter in the corner to.View attachment 437768

The water runs from the bottom up, so they way I did it was poly-fil (mechanical) than my coarse sponge and I top it with bio rings. You don't have to do it this way, you can do it poly-fil and nothing but media up top.

Sorry for the late reply, I'm usually posting on weekends through the phone and not through the desktop.

 

The water runs from the bottom up, so they way I did it was poly-fil (mechanical) than my coarse sponge and I top it with bio rings. You don't have to do it this way, you can do it poly-fil and nothing but media up top.

Sorry for the late reply, I'm usually posting on weekends through the phone and not through the desktop.

Ah okay I though it’s was flowing back to front but makes sense thou. Alright guess that’s what I’ll do