Equipment Review and Discussion :: What media is in your filter?

[Chrisbarnett]

I'm not sure at all of the sizre of Bio rings... But heres some pictures I just took of my prefilter.
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[TheComputerGremlin]

The idea I get about the prefilter is that it's just ceramic rings that capture waste. The ceramic rings from Rena are intended to colonize bacteria (which is also good, just not exactly the intention of the prefilter). I'm not sure if they are the same size or not, but I like the ceramic prefilter to capture waste, and it was a lot cheaper than the Rena version. I also have stars to do the bacteria colonies.

If you are using the media that came with your Rena, you are using biochem zorb. It's pretty standard, and unless you have a need to remove a specific chemical, it's the most useful IMO.

[Fuzzy Hamster]

I already mentioned it in my first post...

Uhhh.....actually you didn't....you said it was Bio-chem but didn't clarify whether it was STARS or ZORB.

In any case, now that we have that cleared up, I would agree with Chris that you really don't need anything else, but if you really want to go the extra mile, then add the Fluval Pre-filter.

The pre-filter and the rings are about the same size, but the rings are designed more to ensure growth and retention of baterial colonies, while the pre-filter is supposedly intended to catch debris but also can be used for bacterial colonies. My understanding of the difference, is that the rings should only ever be rinsed gently with tank water so as not to kill the bacteria, while the pre-filter should be washed thoroughly to remove debris accumulations (provided that you also have some other biological media such as ceramic rings).

[Daniel3507]

i have a pre-filter in the top basket of my fc5 along with some bio balls. in the middle i have bio balls, and in the bottom i have a bag of the Zeo carb and a cut to fit fine filtration pad. next time i clean the filter though im going to use a cut to fit carbon pad instead of the zeo carb. i also found a filter pad that removes phosphate that im going to try.
http://www.hbhnet.com/Products/padsfiber1.htm

[meltedspork]

I have a Fluval 304 which has 3 baskets plus a side area that hold 4 foam blocks. I put pre-filter in my bottom basket, bio-rings in my middle basket, and ammo-carb in my top basket. My water is always crystal clear.

[steve]

A couple of years ago, I accidentally bought pre-filter media (I thought it was ceramic bio-rings). From what I read ago, it was to slow and even out the flow of water moving through the filter. Personally, it's effectiveness is questionable.