Aquaclear owners, question about media

S

swifty

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 13, 2013
268
1
0
California
I've used ACs for a couple years now on my tanks and am extremely satisfied with them. There was the initial issue of noise, which was quickly fixed by lubing the impeller shaft, and also tiny particles floating in the water, which was fixed by adding filter floss.

My question is, are the sponges really needed?

I've recently started putting some filter floss at the bottom of the media basket, and noticed just how gunky it gets faster than the sponge. With the sponge at the bottom it is sometimes a bit harder to completely get all the gunk off, but with the floss I can toss it and replace weekly because of how cheap and easy it is to replace (I bought a $4 bag almost 2 years ago and barely 60% done with it).

On one of my tanks with 2 filters, they are setup as follows:

[biomax]
[sponge]
[filter floss]

[biomax]
[filter floss]
[sponge]

I was thinking for quicker maintenance and increased biological filtration of doing:
[biomax][biomax]
[biomax][biomax]
[filter floss]

Would it be just as beneficial to have the filter floss at the bottom, and pack the rest of the media with as much biomax that can fit? Filter floss seems to be the best mechanical, and biomax/matrix/rings are the best for biological.
 
L

letstalkfish

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 12, 2013
633
0
31
Nomad
There is no reason you couldn't run it like that. I would definitely throw a little extra floss in there to try and keep the bio media from catching more of what the mech usually does, but the floss and the sponge serve the same exact purpose. Go for it.
 
Aw3s0m3

Aw3s0m3

Piranha
MFK Member
May 6, 2012
3,188
82
81
Over there
As long as you have some type of mechanical filtration it'll work. As you noticed, the filter floss gets much dirtier which means you're gonna have to replace it more often. If you're ok with that then the filter floss is fine.
I personally like having the sponges because I never have to replace them. I just squeeze it a bunch of times in tank water when I do wc's and pop it back in. I also only feed my fish 1, 2 or 3x per week so not that much waste really builds up and the food is too big to get sucked into the filter before it is eaten


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suprd71

suprd71

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 27, 2012
280
33
31
North Bay Ontario Canada
Also depends on tank size and stock. I run 110's in tandem on a pair of 120g with single large cichlids. Sponges are cleaned every 3-4 weeks, and are not really that bad. If you have a heavy bio load tank and go with just floss for mechanical you may be having to replace every couple days or so. Not sure I would want to disturb the bio media that often. Sure, it will work fine, but could be a pain.
 
B

Bad-Daddio

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 11, 2005
30
6
38
52
Granite Falls, WA, USA
I slice the sponge in half lengthwise and then sandwich a blue/white bonded pad in between them. I usually put some kind of bio on top of that.

Looks something like this:

[Bio]
[AC Sponge] (1/2)
[Blue/White bonded pad]
[AC Sponge](1/2)

I've run them for many years like this, it works great!

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calichai

calichai

Polypterus
MFK Member
Oct 28, 2009
1,059
112
96
socal, oc
Aw3s0m3 said:
As long as you have some type of mechanical filtration it'll work. As you noticed, the filter floss gets much dirtier which means you're gonna have to replace it more often. If you're ok with that then the filter floss is fine.
I personally like having the sponges because I never have to replace them. I just squeeze it a bunch of times in tank water when I do wc's and pop it back in. I also only feed my fish 1, 2 or 3x per week so not that much waste really builds up and the food is too big to get sucked into the filter before it is eaten


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Click to expand...
I follow the same routine as awesome on my ac110. The fine stuff gets polished out of water from a sponge filter and xp3. I was curious about the impeller lube you mentioned though.


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ExoticGREEN

ExoticGREEN

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2010
3,204
842
150
$0uth3rn C@l1f0rn!@
I run everything but carbon. I just add more ceramic rings and add micron padding. Works dope! but the micron gets dirty soo fast LOL.
 
viejafish

viejafish

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2013
679
119
61
Northeast
AC foam isn't good for mechanical filtration because it is too porous to capture the fine. To improve AC mechanical filtration effectiveness, you can wrap a blue bonded pad over the foam. Simply sandwich a blue pad won't work because water will bypass the edges once the pad got clogged up and shrink. Blue pad is not cheap. You can substitute blue pad with cheap polyester batting from fabric shop.
 
RD.

RD.

Gold Tier VIP
MFK Member
May 9, 2007
13,170
12,498
3,360
64
Northwest Canada
[biomax]
[a couple of thin blue/white pads]
[sponge]

Coarse AC sponge at the bottom catches the large particles, the blue/white media catches the fine particles, and the bio media on the top is just icing on the cake. All of the media in that set up grows a reasonable quantity of bio bacteria, resulting in a great set up for both mechanical & bio filtration.
 
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