best media for filters

[acenia]

hi all
i have a fluval 304 and right now i have no media in my baskets just the foam. and i was woundering what is the media is best to put in. i looked in other threads but could not find a good answer. so all input will be appreciated.
thanks

[Jason McKenzie]

Hey acenia Nice Sig. I think we found our new sig maker hehe

I used to run a fluval and when I did I just ran the foam and carbon but would not use carbon 24/7. only once in a while.
I mainly used the Fluval as a place to put phosphate sponges and carbon and if I wasn't running either then the Fluval was not running at all.

Mechanical filters are not always needed for a reef system as they tend to produce Nitrate if not maintained weekly. with enough LR and not too many waste producing fish one should not need a mechanical filter.

[Matt Rogers]

Ditto.
I tend to run carbon that I swap out every few weeks in my Tetratec. It has a sponge in there that I rinse out occasionally - I don't have any nitrates yet, even with this sponge.

I like the hang on the back because it's easy to pull those things out and change - I don't even turn it off when I do this, mainly because this particular filter jams from kalk a lot so I don't want to chance it, often if I turn it off it won't come back on.

Anyway, sumps are good for some of the stuff that you keep in canister filters and makes it easy to remove too.

[acenia]

Thanks you guys... ill leave it as is for now, just started the tank yesterday (01/09/2005) so right now not allot of anything in the tank except for some clowdy water cause of the sand. When ill have some LR ill just take it out.

Thanks again.

P.S. thanks Jason for the sig compliment.

[dx7fd2]

I recently added a Via Aqua cannister filter to my arsenal of devices for my reef tank and found that when I was using it, just with the foam, that my skimmer stopped producing because the water was so clean. I have since switched back and will use the cannister for occaisional clean-up and carbon duties.

I also have a Diatom filter but that is stricly for water polishing purposes, especially in my FW tanks.

Drew

[JohnO]

acenia,

I ran my tank for the first 3 months with just a fluval 404. Now I have a skimmer I have taken the foam filter pieces out and just use the baskets for carbon and anything else I need like Phosphate remover etc :-)

John