As topic subject - posted here as fish based forums don't have an opinion!!
figure there may me someonehere with an interest
whats the best use of a 400l fluval 4xtwin basket filter?
4 levels split into pairs on each level
as bought, 1st 2 layers crbon packs, next 2 levels, "noodles"
Is there a better combination?
(I don't like the carbon filters and preferbiological filters)
Discuss
D
macspeedy is your man
His employer was http://www.deepseaworld.com/ till recently
macspeedy AT gmail.com
cheers
Thanks
they seem as comercial as here
http://sharkdives.blueplanetaquarium.com/
(I'm going for a dip in their tank after I've been in to red sea this year!!)
very nice people but a bit bigger scale than in my house!!
no tank should need 2 layers of activated carbon!!! Mine has filter floss which is changed weekly, half a layer of carbon and half bio material plus full layer bio in its 3 layers
You don't need carbon unless you have dosed the tank with some chemicals or medicine.
In my Malawi Cichlid tanks I have Tetra 1200 canister filter/pumps and they have (from the bottom up)
Course mesh pads
Ceramic tubes
Bioballs
fine mesh pads
& finally floss
So it has mechanical filtering (pads) and biological filtering (ceramic tubes & bioballs)
Most canister filters draw water up from the bottom of the canister so remember that when you are layering your media.
mac built my pond filter out of what we had available. Its a 2500 litre with a load of carp goldies and a few koi. We have no problems apart from one
drain that clogs cause of the right angle corners. Its pumped by a hard working machine mart pump thats does the job. Floss and a bed of porous bio
bed matter with a mechanical screeding to sift the larger debris.
Clean water comes out and we pump that through a uv light and secondary filter to get the micro particles into more bio balls and back it goes.
the pond is round so we get a circular flow that drives the waste to the central drain...
He worked with the kit till they layed off all the staff who actually new what they were doing..and left the place with a skeleton staff..
Its now run by accountants.......who sold the boat that they used to catch the replacement fish that they display......fish dont last for ever....and
the bigger ones eat the mackerel as a matter of course.....so you have to catch some more......trying to get commercial fishermen to catch live stuff
is difficult as they are geared up to bring large catches that are dead...
was a place to be proud of now it get more rundown every time we visit and the ticket prices are scary if you are a family...
quote:
Originally posted by Steve G
no tank should need 2 layers of activated carbon!!! Mine has filter floss which is changed weekly, half a layer of carbon and half bio material plus full layer bio in its 3 layers
If any of you folks have been using CO2 for your welding, piping a bit of that into your tank makes plants grow really well. I really didn't have
any success with plants until I did that. I used an small upside down ashtray or whiskey shot glass to capture the bubbles and then the CO2 dissolves
in the water.
Had a little trouble getting the flow slow enough, you just need one bubble every few seconds, but the extra that doesn't fill the glass just
bubbles away. A tank of CO2 lasts quite a long time this way. maybe a year or more.
The fish really like the plants too and the plants do a good job of filtering. When this is working well you can see oxygen bubbles forming on the
plants...
When the plants got large, I would take them back to the pet store and they would give me a credit of $30 or so for a nice big plant.
In mt Juwel H filter I run
Filter wool ( swapped every week )
1 corse
1 gravel
1 medium
1 fine
Ps run Co2 with a second powerhead and a twirly thing that increases the Co2 water mix. end up binning plants.
The only woed of warning with co2 is you can serioulsy change the PH of you water so check it regulaly
regards
agriv8