# What’s in your canisters?



## ricktfoster (Feb 15, 2017)

I’ve got a Hydor 450 which I love. Inside (from bottom to top) I’ve got the sponge, Seachem Matrix, Biorings (which will eventually be Matrix as well) & Polyfil with a bag of Chemipure Green.

How do you guys have your canisters setup?



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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Wow, kinda a trade secret...
LOL, ok
AquaTOP 500 so there are 4 trays.

Top Tray = Eheim Substrat Pro
Upper Middle Tray = Eheim Biomech with 1" thick poly fill above the Biomech
Lower Middle Tray = (2) foam filters; bottom one very course, upper one course
Lower Tray = Old Eheim Ehfimech Mechanical Filter Media (hate the new plastic Mech Pro)

Pretty amazing at how black the water is at the bottom of the filter, yet the poly fill is still flowing very well.


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## Rare (Jul 18, 2016)

kljlj


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## ricktfoster (Feb 15, 2017)

Rare said:


> kljlj




.......sounds interesting!


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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

Two tanks running similar setups. 55 with a SunSun 304B with a SunSun 603b pre filter canister, 29 runs a 702 with a 602 prefilter. 

The pre filter canister has 3 foams that come with it, and then I added a 100 micron polishing pad. I open this and clean it weekly, replacing the polishing pad. Using a bleach and water solution I'll clean the pads once a few acumliate, then reuse them.

Inside the 304 and 702 are full of marine pure bio balls in the bottom trays, then purigen packets at the top. This way I only need to open the canister every few months.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

My cans were almost alway set slightly different for different needs . But a general idea is to run it through first the course "straining" type media to keep the gunk off the bio media and then gradually clean it with fine stuff. But how much of any type depends on what's in the tank. Tanks without fish got no bio and just mechanical. That maintained good flow and the bio was all over the tank and plants.


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## York1 (Dec 18, 2014)

I have 2 ehiem 2078 All the trays are filled with marinepure spheres and of course a fine and coarse filter pad


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

Good thing a thread is opened for this... anyone use peat granules in their canisters? I'm going to use some inside a nylon bag but not sure how much to put in it? Trying to lower my pH. Thanks in advance for the reply.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Eheim easy 35 (whatever model that translates to)

Just bio balls and coarse sponge.


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## Koenig44 (Aug 19, 2016)

coarse sponges, bio pellets, filter floss.


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## ricktfoster (Feb 15, 2017)

Raith said:


> Good thing a thread is opened for this... anyone use peat granules in their canisters? I'm going to use some inside a nylon bag but not sure how much to put in it? Trying to lower my pH. Thanks in advance for the reply.




I used to use this in my Fluval HOB filter.










I just filled the nylon bag with it. At the time I had a 60 Gallon. Though it never really put a dent in my PH. I have very hard water. Why are you trying to lower?


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## evil8 (Aug 7, 2018)

This thread is timely and very interesting. I'll be moving from a hob to a canister this week and I have some questions. I'm eager to pull the hob from my 30 gallon as soon as possible to remove the noise in my living rm. Can I just move the filters and media (small bag of ceramic rings, 3 small coarse sponges and 1 small fine sponge) into the canister (I don't have an issue cutting the sponges into small squares to fit)? Being new to canisters do I stack the trays to filter from top to bottom or bottom to top? Or does that depend on the make of the filter. I'm looking at the Marineland Magnaflow C160 (or perhaps the C260) and will be ordering it online this evening so I can set it up this weekend. Thanks!


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

ricktfoster said:


> I used to use this in my Fluval HOB filter.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


My pH is affecting my floaters, trying to keep it lower. I'm using the Fluval one, my gH is also 10.


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## DimitriSF (Oct 28, 2017)

I only use pondguru's Biohome Ultimate media in my filters.

I think Biohome is the only biological media that supports anaerobic bacteria. That's important, because anaerobic bacteria convert nitrates into nitrogen gas, thus FULLY completing the nitrogen cycle (v.s. forcing you to do massive water changes to lower nitrates).

All my tanks' nitrates are always 0-5 ppm, and I only do tiny 5-10% water changes, every 3 weeks or so. And that's only because I'm trying to keep my TDS at 200-250, because of my shrimp.

If I did RO top-offs, I could easily go a month or more between 5-10% water changes. Easily.

I'm surprised more people don't use Biohome.


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

Raith said:


> Good thing a thread is opened for this... anyone use peat granules in their canisters? I'm going to use some inside a nylon bag but not sure how much to put in it? Trying to lower my pH. Thanks in advance for the reply.


I use the Sera or Fluval peat pellets in some of mine. Not that precise about it. I just stuff a bunch into a small fine mesh filter bag. Call it somewhere in the ballpark of around 1/4 to 1/2 cup. A little more or less depending on filter size or a given case. Typically takes my pH from about an even 7 to ~6.5-6.3 range. Usually swap it out when I clean the filter.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

SunSun 303b on a 40 breeder.

Tray 1 (bottom): Coarse blue sponge, Marineland blue bonded pad, white polishing pad designed for 303b trays, and topped off with a 100 micron felt pad.
Tray 2 (middle): Seachem Matrix, a bag of seeded Fluval Biomax for quickly establishing new filters (if necessary), and 250ml of Purigen.
Tray 3 (top): 1 lb of Biohome Ultimate.

I usually go about 5 weeks (first weekend of every month) between filter cleanings, but the last one I went 6 or 7 weeks, and probably could have gone longer. But I try to keep my routine relatively consistent, it's just the last cleaning I got kind of lazy about getting done on time.


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## rosyrobyn (Feb 14, 2018)

Anyone use pot scrubbies for bio media? I'm trying it out since I'm on a tight budget. Got the idea from here: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/best-cheap-bio-media.46922/


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## oscarlloydjohn (Dec 3, 2017)

rosyrobyn said:


> Anyone use pot scrubbies for bio media? I'm trying it out since I'm on a tight budget. Got the idea from here: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/best-cheap-bio-media.46922/


I think The King of DIY (Joey) on youtube made a video about cheap bio media. Pot scrubbies and lava rocks are mentioned in the video.


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

Mike A. said:


> I use the Sera or Fluval peat pellets in some of mine. Not that precise about it. I just stuff a bunch into a small fine mesh filter bag. Call it somewhere in the ballpark of around 1/4 to 1/2 cup. A little more or less depending on filter size or a given case. Typically takes my pH from about an even 7 to ~6.5-6.3 range. Usually swap it out when I clean the filter.


My idea was to leave it in, if it can lower the pH little by little, that is essentially what I want. If it drops by really quick, then, wouldn't that be considered an issue?


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

Raith said:


> My idea was to leave it in, if it can lower the pH little by little, that is essentially what I want. If it drops by really quick, then, wouldn't that be considered an issue?


Doesn't in my experience. It's relatively mild stuff in terms of any effects and takes some time. That may vary some depending on volume/water volume, buffering within your tank, etc., but in general it's not going to cause any shock in any typical use. You can leave it in but at some point whatever's in there that can be extracted will be extracted and it won't be doing much for you from there.


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

evil8 said:


> This thread is timely and very interesting. I'll be moving from a hob to a canister this week and I have some questions. I'm eager to pull the hob from my 30 gallon as soon as possible to remove the noise in my living rm. Can I just move the filters and media (small bag of ceramic rings, 3 small coarse sponges and 1 small fine sponge) into the canister (I don't have an issue cutting the sponges into small squares to fit)? Being new to canisters do I stack the trays to filter from top to bottom or bottom to top? Or does that depend on the make of the filter. I'm looking at the Marineland Magnaflow C160 (or perhaps the C260) and will be ordering it online this evening so I can set it up this weekend. Thanks!



Absolutely you can move what is in your existing HOB media into your new canister filter. Beneficial bacteria will grow on nearly everything in a fish tank - granted it "prefers" to grow on some things more than others. Based on some of my previous experimentation, beneficial bacteria grow very well in sponge material (think sponge filters). Once your have your new filter set up, give it a week or so of run time for the HOB bacteria to grow into the canister filter bio material. Then I would slowly (over 2 weeks or so) remove the HOB material.


As for the new filter, yes it does mater how you set up the trays. Bio Media typically does the best in clean water (think well filtered). So, most canister filters move the incoming water to the bottom of the filter. As the water moves UP thru the trays you want to progressively filter out the debris - course to fine. Then at the very top of the filter (top tray) is where your bio media goes.


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## Kaiede (Sep 11, 2017)

DimitriSF said:


> I only use pondguru's Biohome Ultimate media in my filters.
> 
> I think Biohome is the only biological media that supports anaerobic bacteria. That's important, because anaerobic bacteria convert nitrates into nitrogen gas, thus FULLY completing the nitrogen cycle (v.s. forcing you to do massive water changes to lower nitrates).
> 
> ...


Plants also uptake nitrate and ammonia, and at least with my bioload, it's possible for me to bottom out on nitrate in the tank during the week as long as the plants are growing well even with fertilizers being added that contain it. It's not like nitrate is running amok in my tanks. And nitrate is only one reason to do water changes. 

I am also just a bit dubious of marketing approaches that could be called a form of "negging". Such as the "you aren't fully cycled unless you use biohome" line. I'm not losing sleep over my nitrate levels or water change frequency, any water quality issues I do have are not going to be solved by it, and biohome isn't offering up evidence of effectiveness, I'm okay with what I've been using.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

Mike A. said:


> Doesn't in my experience. It's relatively mild stuff in terms of any effects and takes some time. That may vary some depending on volume/water volume, buffering within your tank, etc., but in general it's not going to cause any shock in any typical use. You can leave it in but at some point whatever's in there that can be extracted will be extracted and it won't be doing much for you from there.




Say you have an EI dosed, high tech tank, that gets the weekly 50% water changes. Would the pH shift from tap (say 7.4-7.6) mixing into the buffered water be a shock to the fish?


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

varanidguy said:


> Say you have an EI dosed, high tech tank, that gets the weekly 50% water changes. Would the pH shift from tap (say 7.4-7.6) mixing into the buffered water be a shock to the fish?


Way too many variables and unknowns to say. Best that I can tell you that I've not seen any sort of shock-type effects in any of the tanks where I use it. That's doing regular 20-50% water changes and nothing to pre-treat the new water (other than Prime obviously). Mostly used in tanks with rams and some other fish that are at least somewhat sensitive including many times with fry in the tanks which I'd think would be a pretty good worst-case.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

Mike A. said:


> Way too many variables and unknowns to say. Best that I can tell you that I've not seen any sort of shock-type effects in any of the tanks where I use it. That's doing regular 20-50% water changes and nothing to pre-treat the new water (other than Prime obviously). Mostly used in tanks with rams and some other fish that are at least somewhat sensitive including many times with fry in the tanks which I'd think would be a pretty good worst-case.




Have you measured the pH before and after to see what the swing is?


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

varanidguy said:


> Have you measured the pH before and after to see what the swing is?


In fact I did monitor pH when I first started using it to see what effect the peat had but I couldn't tell you now exactly what it was for an N% water change. About as expected as I recall. My tap is about 7. Over about a day or so it will take it down to the ~6.5-6.3 range. Water changes left it somewhere in between and then it would slowly bottom out again in that same range. As I said, never had any issues and my tanks are relatively stable at this point so haven't really paid much attention to it beyond that. Main reason that I started using it was to get pH lower for successful fertilization of ram eggs and they spawn all the time so I can kind of monitor it indirectly that way. On the odd occasion that I've tested it otherwise it's always in about that same range.


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## DimitriSF (Oct 28, 2017)

Kaiede said:


> Plants also uptake nitrate and ammonia, and at least with my bioload, it's possible for me to bottom out on nitrate in the tank during the week as long as the plants are growing well even with fertilizers being added that contain it. It's not like nitrate is running amok in my tanks. And nitrate is only one reason to do water changes.
> 
> I am also just a bit dubious of marketing approaches that could be called a form of "negging". Such as the "you aren't fully cycled unless you use biohome" line. I'm not losing sleep over my nitrate levels or water change frequency, any water quality issues I do have are not going to be solved by it, and biohome isn't offering up evidence of effectiveness, I'm okay with what I've been using.


It's healthy and wise to be skeptical. But, I assure you, this media works.

Glad you aren't losing sleep over doing frequent water changes; but I'm not in that camp. I prefer the low-tech/no-tech/Walstad approach that advocates less water changes. And my water quality is just fine.

What evidence of effectiveness do you require before trying it? The microbiology, behind how anaerobic bacteria break down nitrates and release nitrogen gas, is not in dispute here; it's part of the (complete) nitrogen cycle. It's basic chemistry.

It took about 4 months, for the anaerobic bacterial colonies to fully take hold in my tank's media, but once they did, it was remarkable to witness my nitrates plunging to almost zero and staying there, for months and months on end.

I also just set up a 4 gallon Walstad tank, this last month. (Plants haven't grown in yet.) I was regularly dosing 4 PPM of ammonia, which kept my nitrates at 20-40 PPM. When I finally added some established Biohome Ultimate media, from another of my tanks, the nitrates plunged to 0-5 PPM, in 4 days... 4 days. And it's stayed there, day after day after day, despite daily dosing of ammonia.

Of course, heavily-planted tanks, with faster-growing plants, can keep ammonia and nitrate levels low too (that's also basic chemistry), but not all people's tanks have such a high plant filtering capacity v.s. their bioload. So, for many of those folks, those elevated nitrate levels is a major reason for frequent water changes.

Anyway, keep on doing what works best for you.

Best,
D


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## Kaiede (Sep 11, 2017)

DimitriSF said:


> What evidence of effectiveness do you require before trying it? The microbiology, behind how anaerobic bacteria break down nitrates and release nitrogen gas, is not in dispute here; it's part of the (complete) nitrogen cycle. It's basic chemistry.


But that isn’t the start and end of the reality is it? Those bacteria need specific conditions, which generally aren’t found in canister filters. It’s even recommended to keep flow slow around this media, as well as a larger amount of it for denitrification, which already suggests a YMMV factor here. But without any solid details it’s hard to say anything solid about it, or validate the claims beyond anecdote.

When this process happens in our substrate, it’s possible for the bacteria to get nitrogen starved and turn to producing hydrogen sulfide. Can the media clog, causing similar conditions after long term use? Why or why not? Not really discussed either. At least vaguely it should be fine, but not a lot of data to draw solid conclusions from, either.



DimitriSF said:


> It took about 4 months, for the anaerobic bacterial colonies to fully take hold in my tank's media, but once they did, it was remarkable to witness my nitrates plunging to almost zero and staying there, for months and months on end.
> 
> I also just set up a 4 gallon Walstad tank, this last month. (Plants haven't grown in yet.) I was regularly dosing 4 PPM of ammonia, which kept my nitrates at 20-40 PPM. When I finally added some established Biohome Ultimate media, from another of my tanks, the nitrates plunged to 0-5 PPM, in 4 days... 4 days. And it's stayed there, day after day after day, despite daily dosing of ammonia.



And while this is an interesting anecdote, it isn’t the same as data. Not without being able to eliminate other factors, and causes. Key to that is a good control.

An example is BRS attempting to test if Marine Pure had denitrifying properties. Their tests were inconclusive, partly because all tanks in their test saw a period of very low nitrates before seeing a rise in nitrates, even their control with no media which plunged down before rising back up. 

At the end of the day, what I have been using works, and I’m not terribly interested in doing a 6 month long test of media where the sole benefit is to compete with my plants for nutrients. In the time it takes this stuff to establish, you should also be getting plants established with similar nitrogen controlling benefits. So our planted tanks aren’t exactly great for controlling variables, as we intentionally add more.

I will point out that Seachem does make similar claims with Matrix, just not nearly as vocally as biohome does.


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## furnfins (Dec 30, 2011)

I just bought Biohome Ultimate media. I'm going to change it next canister cleaning. Figure I'll add it in it's own little bag next to existing media for a while. I'm also going to add a different sponge along with the Eheim sponge.


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

I'm going to experiment with pH, I have peat granules in a bucket with water out of tap, 7.8, letting it sit for a day and then check.


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## DimitriSF (Oct 28, 2017)

Kaiede said:


> But that isn’t the start and end of the reality is it? Those bacteria need specific conditions, which generally aren’t found in canister filters. It’s even recommended to keep flow slow around this media, as well as a larger amount of it for denitrification, which already suggests a YMMV factor here. But without any solid details it’s hard to say anything solid about it, or validate the claims beyond anecdote.
> 
> When this process happens in our substrate, it’s possible for the bacteria to get nitrogen starved and turn to producing hydrogen sulfide. Can the media clog, causing similar conditions after long term use? Why or why not? Not really discussed either. At least vaguely it should be fine, but not a lot of data to draw solid conclusions from, either.
> 
> ...



What other natural explanation, besides _denitrifying_ bacteria, would explain the sudden, precipitous drop of my nitrate levels, in a new, virtually-plantless tank. If there isn't any other likely explanation, then isn't the only reasonable conclusion that the cause of the reduction is likely the denitrifying bacteria? And if yes, then isn't the media the likeliest source of this sudden appearance of this denitrifying bacteria? (Remember, the nitrate drop happened within 24 hours of adding the established media, and took place over only a 4-day span, and my tank, in fact, all my tanks, continue to maintain <5 ppm nitrate levels.)



I'm happy to remove the media from my tank, and see if the nitrates start to rise again. But, what would that accomplish? It's not like you'll accept my results, if that happened. What if I then added it back and the nitrates dropped again? Probably not then either.



This is not a jab at you. To the contrary! You don't know me from a stranger on the street; why would you trust what I say? You genuinely are skeptical, and that's totally understandable. I just happen to know, from repeated usage, that it works. That's all.



Don, from GreatWave Engineering (a real life "pond guru", if there ever was one), has done tests on Biohome. The only one I uncovered on youtube is his test on whether Biohome affects pH:







I've enjoying this discussion. All the best to you.

D


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## AbbeysDad (Apr 13, 2016)

rosyrobyn said:


> Anyone use pot scrubbies for bio media? I'm trying it out since I'm on a tight budget. Got the idea from here: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/best-cheap-bio-media.46922/


It's not a canister, but I have pot scrubbies in a 4 stage trickle filter I built out of 5g buckets for our little basement turtle pond. Sponge, polyester fiber, nylon pot scrubbies, Matrix/DeNitrate:
(Like bio balls, the pot scrubbies work great in a drip application. In a canister filter, I think bio-sponge would be better)


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I got a whole lot of tilapia poop haha
I have ehiem ceramic balls/bio media spread over the 4 containers of my canister. Sponge/foam clogs too quickly with my stock.
The outflow dumps into a grow bed with peppers and now some pea stocks. Bin is filled with expanded clay media balls. Water dumps from there back into tank.


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## rosyrobyn (Feb 14, 2018)

AbbeysDad said:


> It's not a canister, but I have pot scrubbies in a 4 stage trickle filter I built out of 5g buckets for our little basement turtle pond. Sponge, polyester fiber, nylon pot scrubbies, Matrix/DeNitrate:
> (Like bio balls, the pot scrubbies work great in a drip application. In a canister filter, I think bio-sponge would be better)


I'm using fine and coarse sponges on the first two layers and then the scrubbies on the bottom. So scrubbies work best in a trickle filter and not so much for a canister? Sounds like I'll have to change them out later for some eheim substrat or something similar.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

Mike A. said:


> In fact I did monitor pH when I first started using it to see what effect the peat had but I couldn't tell you now exactly what it was for an N% water change. About as expected as I recall. My tap is about 7. Over about a day or so it will take it down to the ~6.5-6.3 range. Water changes left it somewhere in between and then it would slowly bottom out again in that same range. As I said, never had any issues and my tanks are relatively stable at this point so haven't really paid much attention to it beyond that. Main reason that I started using it was to get pH lower for successful fertilization of ram eggs and they spawn all the time so I can kind of monitor it indirectly that way. On the odd occasion that I've tested it otherwise it's always in about that same range.


Awesome, that's good to know. Gradual changes are a-okay, especially when stable as you described. Did you notice any other properties to the peat? Does it soften water or reduce KH like a buffering substrate would? I also wonder if it would absorb nutrients like a soil/substrate with high CEC would.

Looks like the wife is gonna be annoyed because a small test must be done...that means another tank! lol


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## evil8 (Aug 7, 2018)

Thanks for answering my questions! I have the new canister on the way.


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

varanidguy said:


> Awesome, that's good to know. Gradual changes are a-okay, especially when stable as you described. Did you notice any other properties to the peat? Does it soften water or reduce KH like a buffering substrate would? I also wonder if it would absorb nutrients like a soil/substrate with high CEC would.
> 
> Looks like the wife is gonna be annoyed because a small test must be done...that means another tank! lol


Sounds like good enough of an excuse to me. ; ) Yeah, not a sharper change like with a pH up/pH down-type product. You're basically making peat tea and the extraction takes a while and it's only going to do so much. I'd be curious to hear how your test goes. I'd expect that there probably will be more of a difference seen nearer a more neutral starting point. Much higher/lower and I think that there's likely going to be too much for it to force things much. No idea as far as nutrients. 

It supposedly does have a softening effect though I've never measured what difference there may be. My water definitely is on the harder side so to whatever extent it helps, I'll take. It does stain the water some. Which I like in the tanks where I'm running it. Purigen will clear that up but it takes out the Purigen bag kind of quickly. At least as far as appearance goes anyway. Turns darker fairly fast. Charcoal I'd guess would work too but haven't tried it. Also there can be a little bit of an "earthy" odor at first when changed. Not over powering but you may get whiff here and there. More so in all-in-one tanks like my Spec V and with HOB filters vs canisters. That goes away fairly quickly. Or maybe I just get used to it. But since the wife with her super-nose has never said anything I think the former. Bagged peat obviously is much cheaper but it's kind of dirty, never know what's in it, need to pick out sticks and bigger pieces, etc. I like the pellets better myself. Neat and clean and easy and it's compressed so more/volume and lasts longer. I bought a bunch real cheap so that's what I use.


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

I stuffed peat granules, I tested in a bucket today, 7.6pH to 6pH in a day. o_o


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

Raith said:


> I stuffed peat granules, I tested in a bucket today, 7.6pH to 6pH in a day. o_o


How much peat, which product, and what volume of water?

Just sitting in a bag or running through a filter?


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## ryguystye (Aug 28, 2018)

ricktfoster said:


> I’ve got a Hydor 450 which I love. Inside (from bottom to top) I’ve got the sponge, Seachem Matrix, Biorings (which will eventually be Matrix as well) & Polyfil with a bag of Chemipure Green.
> 
> How do you guys have your canisters setup?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I've got a Hydor 600 with a similar setup. Sponge, the Hydor ceramic rings that came with the canister, Matrix, and Polyfil. I'm thinking of getting rid of the ceramic rings. Should I just get more Matrix too?


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## theDCpump (Jul 22, 2016)

AbbeysDad said:


> It's not a canister, but I have pot scrubbies in a 4 stage trickle filter I built out of 5g buckets for our little basement turtle pond. Sponge, polyester fiber, nylon pot scrubbies, Matrix/DeNitrate:
> (Like bio balls, the pot scrubbies work great in a drip application.* In a canister filter, I think bio-sponge would be better*)


Bingo!
I agree.
Attack with easy to maintain strategies.

* - *I use *all foam* in my canisters and only open up the canister's body every quarter of a year.
This is only once the foam slabs in each chamber are established and running.
-this keeps the seals nice and unused, prolonging the notorious leak issues in time.

*Prefilters:*
Run a select porosity (hole size) pre-filter sponge on the intake of a canister, and all the heavy food/plant garbage gets stuck on the outer surface area of the prefilter (which gets removed and squished in water change water).
While maintaining the water changes, siphon off the prefilter while it is in the tank. 
It is the easy way to keep the canister's prefilter sponge on longer.

*The easy part:*
Where is the tight porosity material your all thinking about?
I use a quiet hang-on filter with layered/stacked porosity sponge in it.
Hang-on filters like the Tidal series have almost no way to leak as they are just a bucket on the rim of the tank.
- Hang on filters are very quick to use, so I don't mind slapping out a hang-on filter each week if needed.

*Bio (rock media):*
I still have all the rock like bio-media from all my hang on filters, canisters, and accessories sitting in a junk drawer.
Some day I'll use it in a sump near the far cleanest end protected by chambers of foam.

I never understood this bio rock thing.
I can take my tight porosity filthy sponge and slap it out, and it gets open and clean again.

The small rock/stone bio media gets filthy in most applications, but I don't believe the pores get any cleaner over time building up with dead clumps of mulm.
If I can keep the rock/bio-media clean in a chamber of pristine water, then I'm ok with that.
Until then, it waits for a sump chamber in the future.

As a summary, I believe the squished out foam can be used more effectively than rock bio media in most applications.

***Give a try to lots of foam, you'll like the way it works for you when it gets seeded and ramped up in the denitrification process.
- stuff those chambers!


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

Mike A. said:


> How much peat, which product, and what volume of water?
> 
> Just sitting in a bag or running through a filter?


It's a bucket, I don't know how many gallons it holds, peat inside a nylon bag, there were two bags full, I'd say maybe 200g worth? Maybe more, dunno. It's the Fluval peat granules. I have heard that you shouldn't soak it before but whatever.


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## Kaiede (Sep 11, 2017)

theDCpump said:


> I never understood this bio rock thing.
> I can take my tight porosity filthy sponge and slap it out, and it gets open and clean again.
> 
> The small rock/stone bio media gets filthy in most applications, but I don't believe the pores get any cleaner over time building up with dead clumps of mulm.
> ...


It's a trade-off, really. Higher surface area at the cost of eventual clogging. It is practically a given at some point, it's just a question of how long. But considering how much extra media we try to have, and the plants on top, that trade off may very well be completely optional for so many of our tanks. There's also reports of folks using the sintered glass media like Substrat Pro for a very long time (10 year range), but it's hard to tell if it is because they were good about avoiding clogging, their cleaning practices, or just not having a huge bioload because of plants/etc. 

I do like having sponges around. My Eheim Pros use sponges instead of the Eheim Mech for the first tray of filtration after the coarse sponge. Two layers, medium, and medium-fine cut to "seal" the tray (and it happens to help slow flow a little, nice byproduct for my tanks). Then the other media goes in the trays after that one. But yeah, I wouldn't run the rock/ceramic media without some sort of mechanical filter in front of it to prolong the lifespan.


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## Tannerleo (Aug 4, 2018)

DimitriSF said:


> I only use pondguru's Biohome Ultimate media in my filters.


_I'm using Biohome Ultimate as well, but not yet seeing the nitrate reduction. How long did it take for you?_

NVM, I saw the answer in your later post.


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## Tannerleo (Aug 4, 2018)

*Ecco Pro Biohome*

I recently switched from a HOB to the Eheim Ecco Pro 2236 and I set it up _"modified Pondguru style"_.

I left the original coarse blue pre-filter ring in the top.

I put 1" Poret 30ppi and 1" Poret 45ppi foam in the bottom tray. I didn't think it a good idea to cram 3" of foam into a 2" tray like Mr. Pondguru did in the YT video.

The other 3 trays are filled with approximately 1.8273kg of Biohome Ultimate.

I ran it with the HOB for a few weeks, then removed the HOB.

It's been running like this since early July. Ammonia and nitrite always at 0 (just like with the HOB), but I'm yet to see a noticeable reduction in nitrate. From what I understand it will take a few more months to build an adequate colony of the "nitrate-to-nitrogen" bacteria deep in the Biohome.

So I'm still hopeful , but like everything else with my aquarium I worry I'm doing it wrong.


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

Raith said:


> It's a bucket, I don't know how many gallons it holds, peat inside a nylon bag, there were two bags full, I'd say maybe 200g worth? Maybe more, dunno. It's the Fluval peat granules. I have heard that you shouldn't soak it before but whatever.


That's a bunch relative to the volume of water. For my Spec 5 gallon I use a small ~3"x6" filter bag probably about 1/3-ish full. Not sure how many grams that would be but call it about a 2"x3"x1" pack of peat. About like an extra large heaping tablespoon or a little more.


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## DimitriSF (Oct 28, 2017)

Hang in there. It just takes time. You should hopefully start seeing drops in your nitrates by around December or so.

You're not doing it wrong. As long as you are using foams in the right order (coarse then medium then fine) it should be ok, and prevent the media from clogging.


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

Mike A. said:


> That's a bunch relative to the volume of water. For my Spec 5 gallon I use a small ~3"x6" filter bag probably about 1/3-ish full. Not sure how many grams that would be but call it about a 2"x3"x1" pack of peat. About like an extra large heaping tablespoon or a little more.


Yeah I put them in my 55G and 20G and it didn't drop too much so that's fine.


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## ced281 (Jul 6, 2012)

For my larger tanks >24" in length, I usually run two canister filters to that I can do regular filter maintenance without worrying about re-cycling my tanks due to crashes in my beneficial bacteria population. For both canisters I run an entire level with Rena/API Biostars (completely filled!). And use one filter for fine filtration and the other filter for carbon filtration. Here's my typical set up:

Canister 1: Water buffer
- 1st layer = coarse mechanical
- 2nd layer = fine mechanical
- 3rd layer = organics (API Biostars)

Canister 2: Carbon filter 
- 1st layer = coarse mechanical
- 2nd layer = organics (API Biostars)
- 3rd layer = activated carbon

If I have a 4th layer (seen with the larger canister filters), I will put whatever I think is needed (e.g. additional bio/organics, carbon, or mechanical) and place it in the appropriate level (e.g. additional coarse mechanical will go after another coarse mechanical, additional carbon will go after the bio/organics layer, etc.)


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## AbbeysDad (Apr 13, 2016)

@ced281 - Seachem markets Matrix and De*nitrate (a pumice stone) bio-media but I'm not aware of a biostar product?? Perhaps API Bio-Chem STARS?


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## ced281 (Jul 6, 2012)

Yes -- I meant API. Whoops sorry! I bought all of mine when they were still owned by Rena, but that got bought out by some other big label brand/company. (Will edit my post to make it clear).



AbbeysDad said:


> @ced281 - Seachem markets Matrix and De*nitrate (a pumice stone) bio-media but I'm not aware of a biostar product?? Perhaps API Bio-Chem STARS?


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

I realize I'm a little late to this thread but, for anyone who is thinking of running Seachem Matrix as their bio filtration, here is an interesting study/test that was conducted by other members of plantedtank. I've also seen very similar results in other tests. 

https://www.plantedtank.net/#/topics/1045898


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