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I hang out on another turtle forum but came here for a different perspective. As far as I know there isn't a definitive list of suggestions for filter media setup like there is here, however I was never under the impression that people there weren't using filter floss.

In the filter media thread the suggestion for my filter is:

Bio Media / Bio Media

Bio Media / Carbon / Purigen

Black Coarse Foam / Black Coarse Foam

Under the normal setup suggestion no filter floss is recommended. I just cleaned out my filter and the filter floss was filthy. How does this setup keep the water clean of fine particles that filter floss would normally trap, or does it?

Filter floss does trap very fine particles (water polishing) but also clogs quickly.

A few problems arise when using filter floss for an extended period of time:

1. Loss of water flow. Because the floss clogs, the flow rate of the filter is severely decreased and reduces the turn over rate of your tank. It's very important with any filter and esp with turtles that we keep turning the water over so the bio media can do it's job. If we don't pass enough water over the bio media, the ammonia / nitrite / nitrate levels in the tank will build rapidly.

2. When filter floss clogs, it becomes a nitrate trap if not changed frequently. This also can cause issues with PH levels.

3. Floss is disposable. When it's dirty you toss it and replace. Given... a huge bag of polyfill isn't very expensive but it still adds up. The sponges can be cleaned and reused many many many times over before they start to fall apart. (years and years)

Nothing wrong with using filter floss if you're changing it out every week or so. Most people don't want to spend that much time and effort maintaining their large canister filters. The sponge media provided by the filter manufacturer will usually trap all but the finest particles in the water and not impede high flow rate of the filter's pump.

The recommended approach is to run your canister with the media setup you mentioned below for your day-to-day setup. Only when you need to trap extremely fine particles should you then use the optional setup with the filter floss. The idea being, the optional setup with floss is a temporary use case.

I think if you were to give the media suggestion that you quoted a try, you'll be surprised at how clean your water will remain. Those coarse sponges will still trap a TON of stuff. You'll still need to clean your canister monthly... but that's better then having to clean it weekly with floss

Cheers!

Totally agree with everything you are saying and the logic behind it sounds sound, lol.

You are totally right that the floss gets dirty enough to lower flow, in my case within about ten days, and I would rather clean out my filter monthly instead of 3x monthly. The floss also isn't reusable so that's an additional cost, even if I used poly fill that would still be more constant maintenance.

Definitely going to give that a try.

Welcome to the site!

Oh yeah, welcome!

Please let us know what setup you went with and how it works out for you. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and helps us to improve that filter media thread. Thanks!

I went ahead and did my setup as recommended here and I've been very happy with it. I was a bit concerned that the water wouldn't remain as clear, but I believe it has for a few reasons.

I think the first part is that a lot of debris naturally sinks to the bottom, rather than staying suspended in the water. I also think that two sponges and no filter floss might not be as fine filtration as one sponge and three filter floss pads, but I do think it's somewhere in the middle, at least judging by water output pressure. I'd imagine some things get caught up in the bio rings as well.

Definitely less maintenance and less cost.

I'm glad it worked out for you. Thanks for reporting back. Have you taken any ammonia / nitirite / nitrate measurements since switching your filtration media?

Yes I did. The ammonia went away pretty quickly, but the nitrite hung around for a bit, but eventually did go down to zero. The nitrate are pretty low as of my last reading. At some point after 9/19 I *believe* I started doing partial water changes because the nitrite were high and weren't coming down. A couple of days after my biggest change (15 gallons out of 40) they finally dropped.

9/19/ .0 5.0 10-20
9/28/ .0 .0 5.0
10/10 .0 .0 10-20

Looking good. Thanks for sharing. Yeah I've noticed that also... the ammonia drops faster than the nitrite does when the tank is cycling.

I didn't help speed up the cycle in any way. I actually switched filters early on, didn't reuse the original media in my new filter, and then changed the setup after a week or so. Everything looks good now though.

Good. It should stay that way as long as you rinse that bio media monthly. It'll build up with gunk that prevents it from doing it's job. Also, if you don't fee like buying carbon on a regular basis, you can use Purigen. Purigen can be "recharged" (cleaned) and reused monthly for like a year. It's $8 for a 100mL bag of Purigen.

I try to encourage people to put their money into a bigger better filter up front then use reusable / very long lasting media to keep the reoccurring costs down.