Some filter personal preference Q's

What would you say is the best order of filtration- your personal preference on mechanical, biological, and chemical filter order and why? What portion of your filter does each filtration media possess?

EX:

Mechanical - Filter Floss (20%) >>> Biological - Lava Rocks/Ceramic Rings (50%) >>> Mechanical -Filter Pads (20%) >>> Chemical -Activated Carbon (10%)

I'm playing around with different filter media for maximum efficiency and I'm just looking for some new suggestions.


A bit random, but does anyone know what gallon capacity the Rena XP3 has?

 

Personally, I like the way may Eheim works:
Stage 1 Mechanical (ceramic rings)
Stage 2 Mechanical (coarse filter sponge)
Stage 3 Bio (substrat pro)
Stage 4 Mechanical (fine filter wool)
Stage 5 Chemical (carbon filter pad)

The chemical filtration using AC is probably not necessary, (you'll get differing opinions about AC), but I guess I like the way the Eheim is setup, and crystal clear water.

If you wanted to, you could add a Stage 6 to the above, with a water polishing stage for absolute clarity of the water

Water capacity of the Rena XP3, well it's easy enough to work out, just key the measurements (in inches) into the aquarium size calculator at the bottom of this page

But to work it out, using inches as the base measurment:
(Length x Width x Height) and multiply by 0.00433
1 cubic inch = 0.00433 US Gallon.

e.g.

24 x 12 x 12 = 3456 cubic inches, multiply by 0.00433 = 14.96G [US] (aka your standard 15G 2ft aquarium)

 

Haha thanks. I think I'm gonna load it with as much biological filtration as possible, and put some mechanical layers every few inches or so.

 

Cool cool.
Just remember, that whilst it's great to have heaps of bio specific media, bb will also grow on any surface it can attach to. So that includes filter pads/sponges etc. too.

Also, keep in mind that more media does not equal more bb. Your bb colony will only grow as large as it's food source allows (e.g. fish waste etc aka ammonia and nitrites)

But sounds like you're in for one ripper of a filter

 

Haha thanks, I'm planning to make a DIY filter for my 10gal.