canister filter media question

[RichE]

I was unable to get the sump to work under the stand (height) so I am going with 2 ac 100's and a marineland c-530 canister filter which is rated at 530 GPH. If I fill the canister filter with nothing but bio balls and bio media, and use sponges in the hob filters, Will I get decent filtration, as to where I wont need to get into the canister filter as often as if it was the only filter?

[linuxrulesusa]

This is speculating based on what I know of how these filters work.

I've not tried this with my own canister.

The only downside I'd see is that no sponges before the biomedia in the canister could mean more crud getting caught in and around the bioballs and such, so you will have to rinse them.  If you have the Ac110s and rinse the sponges in them often to keep crud out of the water column and off the bottom you will probably have to clean the canister less often than if it was the only filter.  But I'm not sure how much less.

[four_by_ken]

For sure you want some kind of prefilter before the canister.  For sure.  For just the reason mentioned above.

You could get away with a prefilter on the incoming side of the canister.  Kind of like a filter sock, or the foam that overflow boxes use.



(pssst... I think you just gave up on the sump idea.  You can make them any size you want)

[RichE]

(pssst... I think you just gave up on the sump idea.  You can make them any size you want)

I did I ran out of time, as I need to get this running and finish the 6ft tank and get everything in order, as I found out today I have to have surgery on both my Hand and shoulder the Tuesday after the auction.

I will concur the sump one day

[greg y]

I was going to link a video I liked but I can't find it, but basically the guy explained how to set up a canister filter the best way possible and it made a whole lot of sense to me so I try to do it the same way.

you can start the mechanical filtration on the intake if you want or wherever the water flows into the first basket, this is where you want noodles or course pads or whatever to disperse the water and grab the chunky waste, gradually make the pads more fine towards the top of the basket to filter as much particles that can clog your media pores.

then fill the rest of your baskets with the best media you can afford, eheimpro, matrix, bioglass, etc....
finally top with carbon or whatever if you must, but this guy argued to not top with any polishing pads or quilt batting because you don't want to restrict flow out of the filter, clogging it up will only hurt your biomedia, clog the pores, gunk it up etc...

Makes sense to me, I'm not sure why  a lot of filters are designed with pads last when really you need them before the biomedia

[four_by_ken]

You do not want Bio first, for sure.
It would be all clogged up in no time.