# Biomaster 250 help needed



## Niall (3 Nov 2019)

How do people stack their sponges and media in their filters. I watched greenaquas video on throwing away the blue tray sponges so that's what I have done, I am running this on my 60 litre tank so I didn't fill 2 trays with Seachem matrix because i want the plants help too.  I have set mine up like this

Top small tray : Filter pad or fine sponge
Next down tray : Empty
Next down tray : Seachem matrix 
Bottom tray : net of oase plastic media

How does this sound?


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## Zeus. (3 Nov 2019)

I use a Fluval FX6 and all I have is coarse and medium sponges and a bit of ceramic media in their, having less fine and/or ceramic media means better flow in the filter so more O2 supp;y to the bacteria so better for anaerobic bacteria esp with a canister. The plants will take care of the biological filtration in our planted tanks. Plus the less fine filtration we have the filter is less likely to clog up and need cleaning so better flow in filter and better output.


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## dw1305 (3 Nov 2019)

Hi all,





Niall said:


> Top small tray : Filter pad or fine sponge
> Next down tray : Empty
> Next down tray : Seachem matrix
> Bottom tray : net of oase plastic media





Zeus. said:


> all I have is coarse and medium sponges and a bit of ceramic media in their


The same as @Zeus. really. I'd keep the Matrix and just have some coarse or medium sponge.

We have plants to <"mop up the fixed nitrogen">, so we can ensure that the filter media remains aerobic and that <"nitrification isn't compromised">.

cheers Darrel


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## The Accidental Aquascaper (3 Nov 2019)

One thing that I thought made total sense when researching this, was the order of filter media.
Mechanical > Biological > Chemical.

This way, the big bits are filtered off before it gets to the biological and chemical media.
Also, the order of the mechanical filters is important too. I've put corse in the pre-filter, then medium and white wool in the bottom tray.
I think of it like sanding a piece of wood. You start with the roughest sandpaper and work down to a very fine grit to get a polished finished.
If the fine wool is up front, it will fill up with poop and will need to be changed frequently and the corse filters behind it wouldn't be doing much.

*As I'm just a beginner, this may well need to be corrected.


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## Aqua sobriquet (3 Nov 2019)

Yes I’ve done the same, first is a medium sponge then filter wool. Last is SubstratPro except some carbon at times.

It’s surprising how many filter manufacturers seem to do it differently though judging by the illustrations they provide of media layout.

I did it the wrong way for many years but it worked in that I was able to maintain a well stocked aquarium. When it came to filter cleaning time though I had to rinse out all the bio media to get rid of the accumulation of crud. These days I just set the bio media tray aside and clean out the sponge and replace the wool.


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## dw1305 (3 Nov 2019)

Hi all, 





The Accidental Aquascaper said:


> One thing that I thought made total sense when researching this, was the order of filter media.
> Mechanical > Biological > Chemical.


I like all the mechanical filtration to have occurred before the water enters the filter body, and I'm not bothered about chemical filtration, I like the water to be slightly tinted by the dead leaves etc, rather than gin clear.

I know they aren't to everyone's taste, and may be hard to hide in the tank, but I like a really substantial coarse or medium pore (no finer than PPI20) foam block as a pre-filter. You just need to rinse that fairly regularly and it allows you to leave the filter body un-opened for substantial time periods.  I know <"they are called "filters">, but my opinion is that any leaf debris etc is much better off syphoned out, rather than entering the filter.

In biological filtration oxygen is the prime metric, I just want dissolved oxygen and ammonia entering the filter, I don't want anything else. <"Everything else is just froth">.

cheers Darrel


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## Niall (3 Nov 2019)

That's sounds like I have it right so. I forgot to mention mechanical filtration has taken place before the water reaches the bottom of the filter to make its way up the trays to the filter wool then returned to tank.


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