Eheim 2260 media help

[Razzmatazz]

Hi all,
This is my first post on this fantastic forum which I stumbled across yesterday.
I'm just in the process of setting up a 4'x 2'x 2' and decided to buy an eheim 2260.
I was thinking of going for an Amazonia basin bio type with 4x 54w t5 tubes and possibly co2.
What filtration/ media would you suggest?
I was thinking from the base upwards;
- marine pure balls
- bag of activated carbon
- bag of purigen
- bag of phos guard
- eheim fix filter pad

Do i need the phosguard or would some phosphates be used by the plants?

Thanks in advance,
Ryan.

 

[ian_m]

No need for phosguard, if you are dosing EI fertilisers you will be dosing potassium phosphate which will be removed by phosguard, a waste of good fertiliser. Phosguard was only invented to remove phosphates as everyone (incorrectly) knows phosphates cause algae 😉 therefore need to buy a product to remove phosphates.

Activated carbon may also not be necessary.

Purigen whilst useful to polish the water, does block flow.

Watch your lights, that is very high, your are into high-tech. Estimating your tank at 400litre -> 90US gals -> 2.4Watts/gallon which is high tech lighting levels. So will require CO2, ferts and water changes if you don't want to vaporise your plants.

The chart below from http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=105774 is a rough handy guide to light level.

 

[Razzmatazz]

Thankyou for your reply Ian very much appreciated.
Ok so would you simply suggest the marinepure balls and then the fix sponge?
Would you suggest anything else?
I forgot to mention that the lights are on two separate channels, I was going to run one channel with two bulbs working for 12 months and then switch over to the other channel.
As you can tell I'm very new to this and i want to do it properly first time.
I don't mind doing water changes at all, I was planning on doing say 20% once a month.
Going to have a look at the ferts aswell as co2 if need be.

 

[ian_m]

Ok so would you simply suggest the marinepure balls and then the fix sponge

Yes. Despite the sponge slowing the flow it makes cleaning the filter easier, just rinse & squeeze in a bucket of tank water. Done. My JBLe1501 (1500l/hr) has two layer of balls, one of noodles and some sponges. I have only used 1/2 the supplied amount of balls and noodles and only coarse filter fitted in order to keep flow high. See video below.



For a planted tank you really need x10 flow per hour of tank volume, so for your tank you need 4000litre/hour (assuming 400l). The 2260 is only rated 2400l/hr, thus you will need more filtration and/or powerhead to shift water. If you are going to use two filters (4800l/hr is good) needs to be setup similar to below.

Or could go with single filter and power head, but you will have to play around to ensure CO2 gets distributed all around the tank. Poor CO2 levels and poor distribution is where loads of people go wrong in high tech tanks.

 

[Edvet]

was planning on doing say 20% once a month.

High light tanks and CO2/Ei ferts : advice is at least 50% each week
Go read the tutorial section of the forum first, lots to learn. Haste is the worst enemy of the new beginner. Read a lot and ask first before investing money. There are a lot of people trying to make money of the unsuspecting beginner, very easy to invest loads of cash in snake oils.