What is the best filter media/order to use in a SunSun Hw302?

Hello!

I recently received my SunSun Hw302 in the mail, and I was curious what order to have the filter media? The filter is for a 30 gallon turtle tank. From time to time there may a few feeder fish or something in there but that is about it. The tank is new, as well as mostly everything in it.

I was hoping to be able to set it up with only the filter media that I had already ordered. I've also heard good things about the Seachem Purigen so I might order that. I currently have a few new boxes of coarse, medium, and fine filter pads, carbon, ceramic rings, and bio balls.

What is the best order to put these in the filter? It only has three trays. I have read that I should put a handful of ceramic rings in the bottom of the filter, and then the pads in the bottom tray. I then should put the bio balls in the middle, and ceramic rings and carbon in the top. Is this okay, or should I change the order? I wasn't sure whether or not it was better to put the ceramic rings and the bio balls together.

My last question involved the carbon. Should I leave them in the mesh bags that they came in? The carbon is pretty small, so I don't think that it is a great idea to leave it loose. Is it better to just get the Seachem Purigen instead? Is it okay to leave the ceramic rings and the carbon in the mesh bags?

Thank you! I am relatively new to larger tanks and canister filters and just needed some direction.

 

If I recall correctly the direction of the flow correctly, you want the mechanical media on the bottom and the biomedia on the top. You want the incoming water to hit the mechanical media first. Since turtles are so messy, I would do the bottom tray with coarse mechanical media, the middle tray with medium and fine mechanical media, and the top tray with your biological media (ceramic rings and bioballs - you really don't need both, they do the same thing). If you add Purigen (it's not necessary, but it will help with filtration), I would put that in the middle tray on top of the fine mechanical media, or in with the ceramic rings. If you want to use carbon instead, I would put it in the same place as described for the Purigen. If your flow slows down too much, I would remove some of the mechanical media (maybe remove the medium mechanical media and keep the coarse and fine).

I would keep the carbon in mesh, but it's up to you if you want to keep the bioballs or ceramic rings in mesh. I think I addressed all of your questions, but let me know if I missed any!

 

The PondGuru on YouTube has a great video on what order to put the media in I used his idea only instead of Biohome ultimate I use Seachem Matrix as my bio-media

 

I have mine set up with filter pads in the bottom, bio balls in the middle, and then Seachem matrix and ceramic rings in the top.

 

I use pondguru/filter man media. Bio home ultimate.
Course, medium,fine foams in bottom tray, ceramic rings tray 2 trays 3 n 4 bio media.

 

I have fish, not turtles.

I filled bottom tray with mechanical media, and the top two trays with six pounds of generic ceramic media from ebay.

There is a lot of space in the hw302, if you fill it with name brand media, the media will cost more than the filter.

The pump is not that strong, my feeling is that you should still use one tray for mechanical as to not slow flow too much. Having double mechanical filtration will not necessarily work better.

 

Bacteria will grow on almost anything. The few exceptions being some hard metals that are toxic to them.

From highest price to cheapest:

1. Eheim Substrat Pro (the little ceramic balls have incredible surface area and pack well but are pricey)
2. Biohome Ultra (ceramic logs---same material as Substrat Pro but in a long media. Great surface are but pricey and does not pack as well)
3. Marine Pure (ceramic blocks, cubes, balls) --- Expensive but effective. There was a false rumor that Marine Pure leaked aluminium but this is not true.
4. Fluval BioMax rings (also ceramic but not as much surface area as those above). But if they come free with a Fluval filter you purchase, they are worth using. Otherwise the other ceramic products above are better, IMO.
5. Plastic kitchen scrubbies. Buy them for 4 for $1 at the dollar store. Lots of surface are and easy to clean if they get clogged. Probably the best bang for the buck if you have a budget.
6. Seachem Matrix/Pond Matrix. Good but really just pumice. You can find a large bag of pumice at most landscape companies.
7. Lava rock. Lots of surface area but you will need to crush it to fit the canister trays. Pumice is a better alternative.
8. Bioballs --- Not really recommended anymore fore canister filters as there are newer, cheaper and better alternatives.
9. Legos, plastic army men toys, etc. Yes, toys can provide a surface for bacteria to grow. Not as high of a surface area but if you have them around and have no budget, then use them.
10. Egg shells. Highly surface area but will add calcium to the water. If you have very soft water or need to buffer the PH, then egg shells will provide a surface for bacteria and buffer the water. You may also want to put the shells in a media bag to prevent pieces from breaking off during use and cleaning.

For your particular filter, make sure to buy the blue filter that is made for Sunsun canister filters (in case one did not come with it). Use that in the bottom tray. Then all other trays should be some of the media from above. I would highly recommend skipping chemical filtration such as carbon, ammonia remover, and even Purigen. If you need to use chemical filtration, then something is probably out of whack with the system itself and more frequent water changes will help as well as figuring out what is causing the problem. Use the space for as much biological filtration as possible.

 

There is a lot of debate about what is best. I've researched all the options and there is a lot of disagreement. Specifically over how much surface area each type of media has.

What I know is that if generic media (pot scrubbies, lava rock, chinese biomax) can process (say) 4 ppm in 24 hours, and your tank only generates 2ppm ammonia a day, then going with expensive media is just overkill. Factors such as longevity, price, and ease of cleaning then are more important.

The HW302 has large baskets relative to its flow rate. You can probably fill it with Lava Rock and it will be just fine filtering a 55 gallon tank. However, smaller filters with less room for media, probably benefit greatly from "high tech" media. The HW302 literally has 10x the storage area of a HOB filter rated for the same tank size.

If you bought the HW302 for $40-50, it would be foolish to fill it with anything expensive. The media to fill the top trays will cost more than the canister itself. Probably twice as much.

In my research, 6 lbs of Chinese Biomax cost the same as a bag of lava rocks, and considerably less than the pot scrubbies that would be needed to fill both trays. Its easier to clean and has equal or better longevity.



Going with the expensive media for a canister with such large capacity is overkill. People have been using lava rocks for ages and it supposedly has 1/4th the surface area of ceramic rings.

In case anyone is wondering, the Chinese ceramic rings wick up moisture at the same rate as Biomax (youtube). I don't think there are any great trade secrets that allow the name brand media to have greater surface area. The Biomax is probably made in China anyway. lol.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that there may be the expensive media available in disguise. Petsmart was doing a fire sale on the National Geographic Bio Media. But it was actually Eheim's Substrat Pro. In my area, Washington D.C., it was going for $6 a box compared to $25 a box for the same stuff branded as Eheim.

I bought like 30 boxes of it at that price for future tanks.

As for legitimacy of claims for surface area, the only two that I am aware of that have been tested in a lab are the Biohome Ultra and Eheim's Substrat Pro. Both are made of the same sintered glass material but the Substrat Pro is smaller and pearl shape so it packs in more in a tray.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that there may be the expensive media available in disguise. Petsmart was doing a fire sale on the National Geographic Bio Media. But it was actually Eheim's Substrat Pro. In my area, Washington D.C., it was going for $6 a box compared to $25 a box for the same stuff branded as Eheim.

I bought like 30 boxes of it at that price for future tanks.

As for legitimacy of claims for surface area, the only two that I am aware of that have been tested in a lab are the Biohome Ultra and Eheim's Substrat Pro. Both are made of the same sintered glass material but the Substrat Pro is smaller and pearl shape so it packs in more in a tray.

It all works! If I was filling a HOB with smaller capacity, or a canister with much higher flow rate I'd be looking at the high tech media. But the HW302 has huge capacity for the tank it is intended to support.

 

That is one thing to keep in mind when pricing the SunSun filters compared to other filters you have to include the price of media. When I loaded up a SunSun HW-704B with BioHome Ultra, it took almost 3kg of it. With shipping that was around $50. That made the HW-704B almost $140. The price adds up.