# Are "Water Polishing Pads" useful?



## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I find the felt is a little too thick for my preference but I do run an alternate rather than using standard media pads. Look at "blue/white bonded pads" as a cut-to-fit. They are a bit stiffer and hold up well without falling apart too quick or cutting flow too much.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Polishing pads are very useful, if you want to spend the money each month to replace them. They take out very fine particles in the water but that's about it. They turn to mush after about a month and are not re usable. I would just go with a very fine and stiff sponge to use as a polishing pad, works better and is reusable.


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## Paul1792 (Aug 30, 2013)

*Polishing pads are great but watch the micron count*

I use 100 micron polishing pads in both my tanks (along with Seachem Purigen) and the water is so clear and polished that the fish look like they are swimming in air.

As stated above, they are not re-usable.

Petland carries AquaticLife non-woven cut to fit filter pads in densities of 50, 100, & 300 microns. I use them in a Fluval C3 (29 gallon tank) and Aqua-Tech 30-60 (38 gallon tank). I think 50 microns would restrict water flow and 300 microns wouldn't polish the water enough.

I change them out every three to four weeks. The ultra fine particles the pads collect become embedded in the material and cannot be rinsed out.


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## jrh (Sep 9, 2007)

Thanks for the info.

My main purpose was to avoid my biomedia getting "clogged".

It sounds like I can try those blue/white pads for normal filtration (what I'm using now gets pretty beat up after one or two rinses), and I'll look at the AquaticLife to put underneath and replace as needed.


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