fluval 305, order of media

[JeninOK]

ok I am trying to set up my new fluval 305. It has three trays with two sections each for media. It came with tons of charcoal which I am not going to use right now but will save for when it is needed as well as a ton of those fluval biobeads.
I am also wanting to add my filter floss, purigen and existing biobead tube thingies from my penguin that is currently running.

But what order should they go in the three trays for optimal performance?

 

[JeninOK]

ok here is my plan, one tray of course filter floss then a tray of the ceramic noodle things, then more noodles topped off with purigen in the final tray, there is also a large sponge area to the side of the media trays and I am going to add one micron sponge and one normal sponge to it...

How does that sound?

 

[WyldFya]

Sounds like a pain in the butt to clean, and a quick clogger. Purigen is not a favorite of mine for canisters, it is something that needs to be easily accessible. I keep mine in either HOB filters or sumps. The finer the pads, and the more pads you have, the more frequent you will have to clean the filter.

 

[mojo2776]

In my 305, I run Fluval prefilter media in the first tray, and the other 2 trays are filled with biomax. As WyldFya mentioned, I save the Purigen and filter floss for my ac110 where it's much more accessible.

 

[JeninOK]

So I should pull the floss and the purigen once the new canister is cycled?
I just didnt want to be running all three filters at once so I pulled the media from the one I was removing.

 

[WyldFya]

Purigen and filter floss have very poor bio capacity, if you wanted to seed the new filter, either running the old ones for a couple weeks or the bio media was needed.

 

[pdsmith]

i run a combo of sponges and the fluval mirco pads in my ac200 and in my fluval 305 the first tray has prefilter mixed with bio-max and the other 2 are straight bio max. its a pain running floss in the 305 bc it clogs.

 

[JeninOK]

i also put the biobeads and the sponges in as well knowing they had more of the bacteria in them. basically I just stuck everything from the old filter into the new.

I will take the floss out since I still have it in my other AC 110

 

[jackdaniel]

I just got a 305 and, after reading a few posts from this and other sites, have decided to run the stock coarse pads (4 in total, but water only passes through one each cycle) as the first line of defense. Second (bottom tray), I purchased the pre-filter media, which got some good reviews and seems necessary for cichlids. Next (middle tray) all three bags of BioMax that come with the canister (divided three bags into two compartments; still some dead space for circulation). Lastly (top tray) I purchased the polishing pads, but I'm not too sure this is needed as I also purchased an Emperor 400 as a "polisher", so the top tray may need some more BioMax. Suggestions?

 

[jackdaniel]

***UPDATE***

I'm thinking of scratching the HOB and sticking to the canister only. As such, I'll be removing the polishing pads and replacing with more BioMax.