New Marineland C-220 questions

[Blazin]

I picked up a new marineland c-220 during black friday and had a couple of questions regarding the filter media. It comes with three different media trays tray 1: ceramic rings, tray 2: bio balls, tray 3: carbon.

I don't plan on using the carbon, so what kind of media would it be best to I replace this with?

Also I herd that bio balls aren't good for canister filters, is this true with the marineland c-220? should I replace the bio balls as well?

Thank you for your help!

 

[joe jaskot]

Instead of carbon, I would add some coarse sponge to the filter.

 

[Renegade87]

I have the same filter (along with 2x ML C-530's) on my 155. Ditch the bio-balls and carbon (as you were planning). You could optimize the setup in one of two ways depending on your budget and/or committment:

Option 1:
Bottom Tray - ML Ceramic Rings
Third Tray - ML Sponges
Second Tray - Seachem Matrix/Eheim Substrat Pro
Top Tray - Seachem Matrix/Eheim Substrat Pro & ML Floss Pad

Option 2:
Bottom Tray - ML Sponges
Third Tray - Eheim Ehfilav
Second Tray - Seachem Matrix/Eheim Substrat Pro
Top Tray - Seachem Matrix/Eheim Substrat Pro & ML Floss Pad

I'm using option 2 in my C-220 (with the Matrix, I have the Substrat Pro in my C-530's). The ML ceramic rings used in option 1 will help filter out some of the larger particles prior to the water hitting the sponges.
This does work, but not as effectively as with the ML sponges in the bottom tray and the Ehfilav in the second tray (option 2).

The media trays will hold just under 1 liter of media each. If you try to pack the full liter of say Eheim Ehfilav into one tray, that might be over doing it. But just so you can acurately define just how much media you'll need. Big Al's and Ken's Fish are great places to acquire the media depending on where you live.

"Good luck and good hunting"

 

[Blazin]

Thank you very much for the reply. This is my first canister filter so I'm still learning about the different media. I am only going to stick with the ceramic and ditch the rest (as stated earlier). When I get home from work I will look up some if the media you have stated.
From what I have found so far us that the ceramic should be the first tray to get hit by the incoming water. My question is does the top tray get hit first or the bottom one? I'm assuming it's the top one because when I first opened the filter the top tray had the ceramic, the middle had bio balls, and the bottom had carbon.

Sent from my HTC Glacier using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[joe jaskot]

You want your bio media to receive the cleanest water possible. Therefore the ceramic media should be the last to be hit. Mechanical first, biological last.