Best filter setup?

[Raquascape]

I hear Seachem matrix is a must for a filter, along with purigen too?

Has anyone got suggestions for an ideal external filter setup?

Cheers guys!

R

 

[Kezzab]

Hi, there's a general view in here that your filter media choice is fairly irrelevant in a planted tank.

Things like purigen can perform a specific purpose, but for 'normal' filtration pick whatever you like and spend your time thinking about factors that will have greater salience - light, co2, ferts, flow etc - in achieving a successful tank.
K

 

[Raquascape]

Hi, there's a general view in here that your filter media choice is fairly irrelevant in a planted tank.

Things like purigen can perform a specific purpose, but for 'normal' filtration pick whatever you like and spend your time thinking about factors that will have greater salience - light, co2, ferts, flow etc - in achieving a successful tank.
K

Thankyou for the advice. Yes I suppose the plants do lots of the filtration.

I've got the light, co2 and ferts sorted just wondered what people were running in their filters

Cheers,
R

 

[Kezzab]

Ive got sponge, alfagrog and clay pebbles in my sump. Sponge for mechanical filtration primarily, the other 2 for biological. Although obviously both do both.

They were cheap and available!

K

 

[zozo]

When it comes to filter media and the quest for the best, there is a lot of commercial input to complicate it and make you buy things. And the only thing you have is believe their word for it. A lot of the general filter information you find out there is mainly based on cycling (establishing) an aqaurium plus filter in the shortest period possible.

Meaning using a very porous bio media that doesn't clog easily and a mechanical (sponge etc.) to clear out fine debri. An aqaurium is dirtiest in it's first starting periode with new substrate that creates cloudy water and a lot of dust particles, melting plants, new wood shedding it's top layer. This is also the dirtiest periode for the filter. And since in this periode the bioload in the water column is highest and the substrate yet isn't established and the shedding plants are yet not transitioned and you already absolutely want to (over) stock the tank with fish, than a top noch filter is a pre. Same goes for unplanted tanks.

But once a sufficiently planted aqaurium is completely established with healthy growing plants than the biological part of the filter becomes more or less, less significant. The aqaurium itself, plants and substrate, has all the biological filtering capacity it needs.

Look for example at the oldschool days, when those little air driven cotton floss filters still where very popular. Planted aquariums were running healthy for many years and these filters only contained floss. These little noisy filters despite less popular nowadays are still considered highly sufficient

(and for many oldscholers among us still about the best ever).

So bottom line, if you can bring up the patience to wait for a sufficiently planted tank to completely establish (cycle) on it's own devices without life stock. This could mean wait a few months till everything is done shedding and all plants have transitioned and growing healthy new growth before putting in lifestock. Than you easily can get away with the cheapest and simplest filter you can find containing only sponge or floss to polish the water.

If you don't have this patience, than you initialy need to rely on a well setup filter to aid you through this cycling periode.. And once all is established you can leave all top noch material in there it can't hurt even tho it's extra over the top biological purpose is neglectable..

Than still what is best is the million dollar question.. I personaly would say "The moving bed sand filter."..

 

[Edvet]

i would say best is trickle filter

 

[zozo]

i would say best is trickle filter

100%

Than make it a planted trickle filter....

I was more refering to the canister type liquidized sand, regarding unbeatable with surface area and regeneration.

 

[Edvet]

(I know fluidized bed filters, and they are very good, still believe trickle filters beat these, unlimited oxygen and if constructed wel virtualy no running costs end virtually no maintenance)

 

[soggybongo]

(I know fluidized bed filters, and they are very good, still believe trickle filters beat these, unlimited oxygen and if constructed wel virtualy no running costs end virtually no maintenance)

if you have a full on hight tech planted tank the plants will do the majority of filtration for you, however you still meed mechanical filtration to remover the crud and this will need cleaning too. trickle filters are the dogs danglers but they do have there down side what with noise and evaporation also loss of co2. not a problem if you have an auto top up system in a sump and dont mind the extra spends on co2 refills. for me a fluidised bed filter is a ticking time bomb.

 

[foxfish]

Above water trickle tower, that what I believe to be the most efficient.
You can find a lot of members useing sumps but very few who make use of a matching trickle tower!

I was once involved with manufacturing pressurised trickle towers, basically a sealed box under 2-4 psi with a cascade of water flowing over boi balls. They worked but never sold very well.

 

[Edvet]

matching trickle tower

Moi! ( although ihad removed it for when i used CO2, and have reinstalled half of it ( square pipe 15x15 cm 150 cm high filled with bioballs)

 

[ceg4048]

I agree with kezzab and zozo. Asking what is best filter or best filter media is like asking what is best ice cream. Who cares? Use whatever filter or media you find most convenient or most sexy. They all do essentially the same thing and use the same principles. There's a pump, with a bucket filled with junk. Bacteria do not care what kind of junk they live on.

After you tire of techno-babble spewed out by vendors extolling the virtues of their absurdly expensive media, check this thread https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/bio-media-for-fluval-305.29612/

Cheers,

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Above water trickle tower, that what I believe to be the most efficient.

still believe trickle filters beat these, unlimited oxygen and if constructed wel virtualy no running costs end virtually no maintenance

These are the ones, you get a huge bang for your buck, mainly because of the extremely large gas exchange surface, the wet area with a thin film of moving water. Properly designed the falling water also pulls in fully oxygenated air fairly effectively. The real advantage, over a fluidised bed filter, is that the filter stays aerated if the power goes off, and they are very resilient against power failures.

If you have a large diameter pipe to hold the bioballs, alfagrog or hydroleca etc. you can use a high volume pump and then you have a "shower filter", rather than a "trickle filter".

I've not used a Bakki type shower filter, but I'd suspect that the "shower" effect is more important than the Bakki media.

Because we aren't interested in denitrification (NO3 > N2 gas) lower retention times, more flow and more oxygen are all positives.

Moi! ( although ihad removed it for when i used CO2, and have reinstalled half of it ( square pipe 15x15 cm 150 cm high filled with bioballs)

This is partially why we used to like them for the waste water work, they are very efficient at venting off the excess CO2 (as well as replenishing oxygen).

Than make it a planted trickle filter..

These are really good, particularly where you have less vertical height, and you have the additional fixed nitrogen uptake from the plants.

cheers Darrel