HOB, Canister materials

[Jeff]

Curious if anyone puts anything outside the norm to help improve filtration in their HOB or canisters  

I consider sponges, floss, bio rings, carbon to be pretty standard. 

Does anyone insert any other plants besides Pothos? Any other bacteria holding material? Always looking for different ideas. 

[KBOzzie59]

I put in a bag of crushed coral to improve buffering, I suppose it also houses bacteria.

[HH Morant]

I recommend 30 ppi (pores per inch) foam as a biological media, with no mechanical filtration (floss) or chemical filtration (charcoal, etc.). I open my canisters only once every 3 or 4 months because the 30 ppi foam does not clog - the pores are too large to serve as mechanical filtration. I have nothing in my canisters except 30 ppi foam and my water is much clearer than when I used other filter media.

I like the articles on filtration and filter media at aquariumscience.org. The comparison of different kinds of biological filter media is very enlightening. When I saw how well the foam worked, I threw away my ceramic rings and the other biological media that came with the canisters.

[Tihshho]

Depending on how often you maintain your canisters determines how you fill them. I tend to run a lot of the stock stuff (minus carbon) in my Eheim's and occasionally swap out their biomedia for Seachem Matrix. Some tanks I run Purigen pads in, but only in systems that I plan on cracking into the canister monthly, otherwise it's a waste. 

[Jeff]

On 5/3/2022 at 12:38 PM, KBOzzie59 said:

I put in a bag of crushed coral to improve buffering, I suppose it also houses bacteria.

Do you have to switch out the crushed coral at all for new, or is it like bio rings where you rinse in tank water during WCs?

[KBOzzie59]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:17 AM, Jeff said:

Do you have to switch out the crushed coral

It slowly dissolves so I just add more as needed.

[Bev C]

In my canister  as my basic  I run a coarse filter pad , a medium filter pad , a polishing pad, Seachem  Matrix rock  , Seachem Purigen (instead of carbon ) And  Grill lava rock from Home Depot .. i like a lots of rock in my canister filter 

Edited May 3, 2022 by Bev C

[Baphijmm]

I've been using BioHome Ultimate media in my canisters at the observatory; the one filter that doesn't have that in it yet is the mbuna tank, but that'll be soon. That plus plants has reduced my need to do water changes quite a bit (though lately I've had to do more, but that's unrelated).

[Brian]

I have decorations and gravel in all my tanks.  The gravel, rocks and driftwood hold a lot of bacteria.  So, I only consider-think about mechanical filtration in my canister filters.  I will use those sponge pads that come with the filters but I mostly fill them with fiber fill.  Buy a big bag at fabric/craft stores really cheap.

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/3/2022 at 9:31 AM, Jeff said:

Curious if anyone puts anything outside the norm to help improve filtration in their HOB or canisters  

I consider sponges, floss, bio rings, carbon to be pretty standard. 

I'm getting to the point where I want to cut out the bottom of the basket and toss some eheim mech in the bottom. 

For canisters, if you have space, I'd try those out.

Beyond that, for my own filters there is a specific type of foam I really like. It's very similar to the seachem tidal foam, I need to find a fine version.

Everything else under the sun I've used. I just splurged and got some of the fancy zip filter bags. That's about how.... exotic my filters get.

[Widgets]

I agree with @HH Morant. I have an AC110 and UGF driven by power heads on my 37g. The AC110 is cramed full of 30ppi foam. The basket and the area around the intake tube inside the filter. I also have a large 30ppi sponge prefilter. This is a new setup and has been running for 5 months. This past weekend's water change I noticed the AC110 had reduced flow. I took the sponges out to clean, but there was nothing there. They were as clean as when I put them in. The only thing that needed cleaning (and the cause of the reduced flow) was the build up of mulm on and around the impeller.

If you can fit enough 30ppi sponge in your filter, you may not need any other media; and you may not need to clean the sponges very often (maybe never)

[Guppysnail]

On 5/3/2022 at 1:40 PM, HH Morant said:

I recommend 30 ppi (pores per inch) foam as a biological media, with no mechanical filtration (floss) or chemical filtration (charcoal, etc.). I open my canisters only once every 3 or 4 months because the 30 ppi foam does not clog - the pores are too large to serve as mechanical filtration. I have nothing in my canisters except 30 ppi foam and my water is much clearer than when I used other filter media.

I do this.  I have tried gobs of materials and different porosity foam/sponge. This works best for me.  I clean them when flow slows usually every 2-4 months depending on my stock in each tank.  It is the only medium I use for filtration. I can see crystal clear longways down my 40 breeder.  
 

Here is a video that could be of assistance.  Hope this helps. 

 

[Guppysnail]

On 5/3/2022 at 12:31 PM, Jeff said:

Does anyone insert any other plants besides Potho

I just did these in my hobs. I also stick lucky bamboo in the tank  Projectplant life has videos on tons of emergents  here is also a thread on emergents  

peace lily

anthurium

dracaena

Spider plants 

inchplants

prayer plants

calathea 

(Philodendrons and syngonium work great too)

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Ken Burke]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:31 AM, Jeff said:

Curious if anyone puts anything outside the norm to help improve filtration in their HOB or canisters  

I consider sponges, floss, bio rings, carbon to be pretty standard. 

Does anyone insert any other plants besides Pothos? Any other bacteria holding material? Always looking for different ideas. 

I use green pot scrubbers in my aqueon hob. I need to cut it to size, but it isa ton cheaper then the replacement cartridges.  It also has more surface area for the BB, and has a finer mesh to polish the water.  

[Jeff]

@Ken Burke THAT is the kind of stuff I was looking for! Love it; and I'm going to try it. My water is pretty good; but I'd like it if it was a little more clear.

[Matt_AKA_Poth-O-Carry]

On 5/3/2022 at 12:31 PM, Jeff said:

Curious if anyone puts anything outside the norm to help improve filtration in their HOB or canisters  

I consider sponges, floss, bio rings, carbon to be pretty standard. 

Does anyone insert any other plants besides Pothos? Any other bacteria holding material? Always looking for different ideas. 

I put lucky bamboo in also. 😄

[Ken Burke]

Make sure the material does mot have any detergent in it, but it should work for you

[Greg Stewart]

I add polyester fiber pillow stuffing as a polishing media, on top of the stock sponges in my canister, as well as two trays of Matrix for bio media. I also have cut-fit bulk rolls of double density polishing media I use in places where the pillow stuffing is less manageable.

I'm paranoid about sponges for cleaning supplies as I don't know exactly what they contain.