# Oase 600 Biomaster set up



## Richard40 (3 May 2020)

Just wanted to make sure that my filter is running to the best of its ability so I wanted to share my set up. It’s a heavily planted tank.

Firstly, I changed the pre filter foams to coarse 30ppi.
In the first tray I added a medium (blue) sponge and fine (white) sponge which I cut up myself.
The next three trays have Biohome ultimate.
The last tray has a bag of Seachem purigen and a carbon sponge on top which again I cut up myself from a sheet.

Is this set up correct, do I have too much media? On the Green Aqua set up they have got rid of the blue sponges in the bottom two trays, filled with Seachem Matrix and they change the last tray with fine filter mesh.


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## dw1305 (3 May 2020)

Hi all, 





Richard40 said:


> Is this set up correct, do I have too much media? On the Green Aqua set up they have kept the two blue sponges in the bottom two trays, next two with Seachem Matrix and they leave the final sponge in but this is a coarse sponge, I would have thought it should be a fine sponge.


My guess would be that it is because of potential flow issues. 

Green Aqua aren't too bothered about the filter "polishing" the water, but they want to make sure that the flow through the filter isn't impeded. Having unimpeded flow pushes more dissolved oxygen through the filter and <"that gives you more nitrification potential">.  

Often the sellers of "premium" filter media may a big play of their media supporting simultaneous aerobic nitrification and anaerobic denitrification, but there are a lot of <"potential issues with this">. I'm not a CO2 user, but if you are the same applies when distributing the CO2, <"flow is king">. 

One advantage of not having any fine sponge, or floss, in your filter is that you need to open the filter body a lot less frequently. I like all the mechanical filtration to happen in the pre-filter, but I use really big sponge blocks on the pre-filter which would be difficult to hide in tanks without a lot of plants. 

cheers Darrel


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## Richard40 (3 May 2020)

Thanks Darrel, 

I think I need to change the fine sponge in the bottom tray as this means I have to replace it like you say more frequently, if it was in the top tray this would make life easier.


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## Jayefc1 (3 May 2020)

The pre filter sponges should stop most debris before it gets to the filter the fine foam is more to polish as it goes back in to the aqaurium so should be at the top in any case


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## Sammy Islam (3 May 2020)

I have mine set up like:
• orange pre filter foam
• bottom tray blue foam pad
• 3 trays 1/3 full of matrix
• 1 tray for carbon and purigen, but remains empty most of the time.
• top tray orange fine foam pad


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## Richard40 (3 May 2020)

The top tray foam pad is a coarse foam pad though? Or is if not? 

Are they a 1/3 full to help flow?


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## Sammy Islam (3 May 2020)

Richard40 said:


> The top tray foam pad is a coarse foam pad though? Or is if not?
> 
> Are they a 1/3 full to help flow?



I believe the top tray that's slimmer than the rest contains the fine orange foam pad.

Yes to help with the flow but i also just spread out like 2L of matrix between the 3 trays and it fills up 1/3 each.


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## hypnogogia (4 May 2020)

Sammy Islam said:


> I believe the top tray that's slimmer than the rest contains the fine orange foam pad.



The orange filter Is actually 30ppi, so not so fine.  

It’s odd that Oase set their filters up with 45ppi in prefilter, then 4 trays of 20ppi and finally a 30ppi as the last filter.  

I set mine up pretty much like @Richard40, except that I have purigen in final tray.  Flow is fine for me, but then again I also have a secondary movement pump in the tank.


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## Sammy Islam (4 May 2020)

hypnogogia said:


> The orange filter Is actually 30ppi, so not so fine.
> 
> It’s odd that Oase set their filters up with 45ppi in prefilter, then 4 trays of 20ppi and finally a 30ppi as the last filter.
> 
> I set mine up pretty much like @Richard40, except that I have purigen in final tray.  Flow is fine for me, but then again I also have a secondary movement pump in the tank.



Oh that is strange! The thin orange foam pad seems finer than the chunky blue foam pad.

Either way the prefilter does most of the work especially when cleaned weekly - it's a god send! I clean the inside of the filter every 3 weeks and theres barely any dirt contained in the pads.


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## hypnogogia (5 May 2020)

Sammy Islam said:


> Oh that is strange! The thin orange foam pad seems finer than the chunky blue foam pad.



It is.  The chunky blue one is 20ppi, which is coarser. You’re right about that prefilter.  Catches most of my muck and cleaning it weakly keeps the flow going nicely.


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## Sammy Islam (5 May 2020)

hypnogogia said:


> It is.  The chunky blue one is 20ppi, which is coarser. You’re right about that prefilter.  Catches most of my muck and cleaning it weakly keeps the flow going nicely.



That makes sense! The thin orange pad is "finer" than the thick blue pad, but the orange pad isn't actually classed as "fine" as it's 30ppi.


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## Noob-dude-scaper (24 May 2020)

There`s no use running a coarser sponge after a finer one for mechanical filtration,however, if you like to use sponges as bio media (some do),then running coarse after fine sponges doesn`t 
 matter.
Ideal mechanical filtration would be course to fine sponges but one of the great innovations on the Oase biomasters is that pre-filter and if your only wanting to use sponges for mechanical filtration then just fit the Oase carbon sponges in the pre-filter as these are finer than 45ppi (probably around 60ppi).
Yes it clogs up faster but its so easy to remove the pre-filter unit so i do this once a week during water change my bottom tray is empty (for fine filter floss should i wish) and all other compartments are filled with bio media,so i only open up my main compartment every 2 months to wash out the bio.


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