WVWade Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 He guys I just purchased a OASE Indoor Aquatics Biomaster Thermo 250 External Fish Heater. I am not that much of an expert with aquariums yet. I have a question I hope you guys can help me with. Can I use bio balls, ceramic rings and charcoal pellets in the same canister? I do not know which is best. That canister came only with ceramic rings. I want to optimize without causing harm to the fish. Can anyone advise? Thanks, Wade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
face Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 You can use pretty much whatever you want in a canister but imo carbon isn’t great because you don’t want to have to open it that often and if your talking about the plastic bio balls they really made for more like a trickle filter not much surface area neither of these are going to cause harm just not ideal Normally I just put Sponge at the start and fill the rest with bio rings 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefhugger Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 On 2/21/2024 at 5:26 AM, face said: Normally I just put Sponge at the start and fill the rest with bio rings I agree , pull out the carbon and save it in case you need to remove toxins at some point, and use bio rings instead of plastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WVWade Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 On 2/21/2024 at 5:26 AM, face said: You can use pretty much whatever you want in a canister but imo carbon isn’t great because you don’t want to have to open it that often and if your talking about the plastic bio balls they really made for more like a trickle filter not much surface area neither of these are going to cause harm just not ideal Normally I just put Sponge at the start and fill the rest with bio rings Can I use bio balls and ceramic rings in the same basket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
face Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 (edited) Yep it’s just surface area just something for bacteria to grow on general bio rings have more surface area per volume but technically no reason to not mix them Edited February 21 by face Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOLANANO Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 On 2/21/2024 at 3:59 AM, WVWade said: Can I use bio balls, ceramic rings and charcoal pellets in the same canister? I do not know which is best. You can use whatever you like in a cannister filter. If you plan on using live plants, I'd shy away from charcoal because it will pull nutrients out of the water that your plants can use. Otherwise, use whatever combo suits your needs. I have Bio ball and Bio rings in mine and I have sponge pads that go from coarsest at the bottom all the way to filter floss at the top. IDK why but when I read the list it made me immediately think of Joe Dirt lol. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 (edited) I use biohome ultimate in my oase 350 thermo the plastic media it comes with is for moving filter beds I would change out the blue pad that comes with the prefilter use the more coarse orange ones blue prefilter pad gets blocked a lot quicker I do have a lot of messy bristlenose in that tank Edited February 22 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 @NOLANANO Snakes and Sparklers! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obitonykenobi Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 If you bought an Oase BioMaster Thermo 250, your filter came with everything you need. The Sponges (20ppi and 30ppi) offer superior surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow on. On top of that it comes with their version of K1 media. Again, way more superior than any ceramic ring whether its from Fluval, Seachem Matrix, or BioHome. Beneficial bacteria require contact with rushing water, so all their hype about how porous it is... is just nonsense. There are plenty of papers out there and research. The Filter came with best media other than pot scrubbers, so save yourself the money. The filter also comes with a set of Carbon Prefilters that are 45ppi. In about 3 months the carbon wears out and are useless. Just replace them with the regular blue 45ppi. If you want really great water polishing, the 60ppi is great, but you will have to be on top of cleaning them every single week, you can get away with the 45ppi for 2-3 weeks depending on how much waste your tank produces. Also, someone above made a comment that carbon/charcoal will pull nutrients from the water. That is a myth. The pores in carbon can only capture complex molecules. Fertilizers are not complex. Now medications, those are complex molecules. The good thing is you have an Oase BioMaster and it will teach you to leave your filter alone. The only thing you need to clean is the pre-filters, the rest leave alone. I open it every 6 months to take a look and the inside is clean (the brown gunk, that is beneficial bacteria). Once a year I will will dip the sponges in a bucket of dechlorinated water to open up pores and remove any excess. The less you touch the inside, the healthier your tank will be and you will have a healthy ecosystem. On top of that, you will achieve crystal clear water, which means no need for activated carbon. If you want to use Purigen, go ahead, that will remove organics and tannins (it will not remove nitrates, ammonia, or nitrites) The only thing I would do with that filter is buy some glass lily pipes and tube connectors. It makes it easy to remove the hoses and pipes to clean them. Other than that, enjoy your filter! I own 2 of them (250 and 650 and a FiltoSmart 100 Thermo) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WVWade Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 Thanks so much for your advice. Can you tell me what size tubes you have for the 250? On amazon there seems to be different sizes. I am not sure which works best with this 250 model. Also you think the plastic rings that came with the unit is better than ceramic rings? Thanks so much for the well versed advice. I am a bit new to this and I am trying desperately not to fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obitonykenobi Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 The tubes are 16/22 (5/8 7/8), all the tubes on the Biomaster series are the same and fit 16mm Lily Pipes. I wouldn't change any of the media that came with your Filter, it is the best. The plastic media that came is their version of K1. Basically bacteria builds up on them and as they tumble in the filter any excess falls off keeping the media clean. that excess goes off to colonise the sponges. More info below. It is pretty much spot on https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/7-filter-media/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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