Hotrodding Cascade filter and particulates in water

[Brandy]

Hi all. I got my first canister filter for my larger 29g tank. It is a Cascade 500 and fitted with a spray bar, I added a pre-filter intake sponge from ACO, and instead of the carbon I added bio rings, purigen, and a polishing pad.

My filter media, from top down, is a polishing pad, filter floss, coarse sponge, 100ml purigen packet, and biorings. I have been swapping out floss and pads every few weeks. and rinsing the rest in tank water. I have refreshed the purigen once. The tank has been set up almost 3 months.

I have a large piece of driftwood in the tank, and a number of wood eating snails (not by design). It seems like no matter how often I swap out the floss and polishing pad, I still have a lot of mulm-y drifting particulates in the water. Is this a new tank thing, or a bad filter arrangement thing, or a swap them out more often thing?

I could add a second polishing pad to the lower basket? Thoughts?

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

I use the Cascade canisters and love how well they keep my tanks clean. Not sure if you meant bottom up or if you have your media upside down. The Cascade canisters fill from the bottom and return from the top.

You would want the coarse sponge in the bottom basket with either the filter floss or polishing pad on top of it. The upper basket is where your bio rings or purigen goes, usually on top of filter floss.

If you're using an intake sponge, you shouldn't be cleaning the canister so frequently, just the intake sponge.

I think you just need to setup the baskets in proper order and let it run. 

[Brandy]

2 hours ago, Mr. Ed's Aquatics said:

Not sure if you meant bottom up or if you have your media upside down. The Cascade canisters fill from the bottom and return from the top...

I think you just need to setup the baskets in proper order and let it run. 

Thank you! I have them in the order they arrived in, which made NO sense, and I wondered if that was the problem!! I have been so frustrated everything I was finding online and their website insisted that I HAD to put the biofiltration on the bottom and wanted floss on the top? I will rearrange. Fingers crossed.

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

You're welcome, I set mine up how they suggested and did not like the results or how often I was having to clean the bio media so I hot rodded it before I knew that was a thing. 

I took it apart, totally cleaned it and figured out how it works. Following the intake, it immediately goes through the top basket, and each basket linked all the way to the bottom. So the first basket to get dirty water was the bottom. Totally the opposite of the brand I used before. 

Once I started doing them bottom up, they worked great. Usually only had to rinse the intake and coarse sponge after that.

[Chandra]

43 minutes ago, Mr. Ed's Aquatics said:

You're welcome, I set mine up how they suggested and did not like the results or how often I was having to clean the bio media so I hot rodded it before I knew that was a thing. 

I took it apart, totally cleaned it and figured out how it works. Following the intake, it immediately goes through the top basket, and each basket linked all the way to the bottom. So the first basket to get dirty water was the bottom. Totally the opposite of the brand I used before. 

Once I started doing them bottom up, they worked great. Usually only had to rinse the intake and coarse sponge after that.

Do you recommend this setip for eheim 2211 too?

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

 

17 minutes ago, Chandra said:

Do you recommend this setip for eheim 2211 too?

Yeah, any of them that fill from the bottom I do that way. Mechanical 1st, biological 2nd and if using chemical filtration that's always last.

You're trying to keep as much detritus off the biological and chemical filtration so it's effective as long as possible. Otherwise you are cleaning it every other week, defeats the purpose for me.