XP3 mechanical filtration

[sixshooter05]

Ok if all goes well this weekend (aka if I find time between running the kids around) I plan on setting up my XP3 on a new 75G tank which will house a red tiger Oscar.

Knowing that this tank will be home to a 12-14" oscar someday (he's about 5" now) would you setup the 1st basket (bottom) with the supplied 20 & 30 ppi foam or fill it with EhfiMech ? Also running on this tank are two AC70's.

The middle basket of XP3 will be full of BioMax and the top one will be BioMax with a fine pad on top.

 

[CLDarnell]

Hello.

I am all for over filtering! But with bio, once you get to a point, adding more bio isn't beneficial. You can only grow as much BB as your tank/fish will support.

If you go with conventional filtration recommendations on the XP3 and with two AC70s, you will have more than enough bio for a 75.

I think you'll end up with a really nice system! You will have enough bio media in two filters to handle the load when you take one filter down for cleaning.

Good luck!

 

[Pharaoh]

Agreed. Keep the foam in the bottom basket. With an Oscar, you're going to need all the mechanical filtration you can get.

 

[sixshooter05]

Yeah I'm all for over filtering and I'm happy with the amount of biofiltration I'll have. What I was wondering what will be the better mechanical stage, the supplied sponges or the Ehfi Mech which I'm thinking is more mechanical then bio ?? Never setup a canister before, up to now have only been using HOB's.

The two AC70's will have the coarse sponge and biomax in them.

 

[Bderick67]

The mech media in a XP3 will do very little in keeping the tank clean. The main purpose will be to keep the bio media clean and free from gunk. I use a half basket of ehfimech then two 20ppi sponges follow by two 30 ppi sponges. Then rest of the baskets are filled with bio media. Keep away from fine filtration media as it will just clog your filter prematurely. With three layers of mech media your bio media will stay much cleaner and may go for longer periods without servicing.

The key to good mech filtration is high flow and frequent cleanings.