I two trays with bio balls and one with carbon and have polishing pads on top of each tray works great.
What's in your FX5?
- Thread starter ChiPerf
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Man, everybody has different setups for what seems to be the same thing. I could do a tray of ceramic rings, which are probably what I called noodles, with a polishing pad on top, then a tray of carbon, and a tray of sponges. Sound good? What do I put the carbon into so it doesn't go everywhere? It just came in a box, which seems kind of stupid. Does it matter what order these go from top to bottom? I guess the filter works from the top down right?
The fx5 has giant sponges around all three baskets for mechanical filtration. The water comes in the filter through the sponges to the bottom and then makes a 180 and goes back up through the center of the baskets through your biomedia and whatever else you decide to put in it. I'd recommend ceramic rings in all three trays. The carbon needs to be put in a media bag. You should be able to find one at your lfs, petco, or petsmart. I wouldn't recommend a polishing pad, because they can cause cavitation issues when dirty. They don't last very long in an fx5 either. If you choose to use it and eventually have bubbles coming from the output try changing the polishing pad and that should fix it.
I got 3 polishing pads in the "kit", so I will just use them until they are nasty or cause issues and then I'll toss them. I'll check out a media bag tomorrow at the LFS. I'm assuming they have more ceramic rings too?
Yeah they should have more ceramic rings. Seachem matrix is a good biomedia that's pretty effective and cheaper than ceramic rings if you can get it.
Wait lava rock? You can do that? How about seachem matrix?
I have 2 trays of biomax and the top tray has pot scrubbies.
I have 2 trays of biomax and the top tray has pot scrubbies.
Don't put any carbon in there. It leads to HITH (hole in the head) disease and should only be used to remove medications from the water after you are done medicating your fish.
