Your current Fish tank Setups!

[b0rn2sk8]

Looking for some help on what to fill an oase 350 filter with in a tropical setup ?
Thanks

I assume you are talking about filter media and not fish?

If that is the case basically anything is fine, even basic sponges will give enough surface area in the real world. As the filter has a sponge pre-filter already, id just put in some basic ceramic media into the baskets and call it done. There is very little point of spending loads of money on anything fancy, all you are paying for is marketing and some of the claims can almost be considered snake oil.

I assume it doesn't come with media which is why you are asking?

 

[RobTi]

It comes with plastic media which is said to only be suitable for ponds and yes I was looking at which ceramic/stone I should get to start it off
Thanks

 

[b0rn2sk8]

I'd just get something which is reasonably cost effective, there isn't really any material difference in the real word. Filters is all about the surface area once you have enough surface area, there is very little advantage in having more.

 

[Kyo]

Got a slight snail infestation problem from a plant that a friend gave me, was wondering if a chemical product against snails to dose the tank is a feasible and relatively safe option? Only have a corys, guppies and Otto's in a 100ltr tank. Any advice would be much appreciated. I also regularly dose my tank with seachem flourish excel and plant liquid fert too.
Cheers

 

[Spook187]

I assume you are talking about filter media and not fish?

If that is the case basically anything is fine, even basic sponges will give enough surface area in the real world. As the filter has a sponge pre-filter already, id just put in some basic ceramic media into the baskets and call it done. There is very little point of spending loads of money on anything fancy, all you are paying for is marketing and some of the claims can almost be considered snake oil.

I assume it doesn't come with media which is why you are asking?

Stop giving out incorrect information, sponges are for mechanical filtration in most cases and hold no where as much bacteria as a good porous media, ceramic is just borderline.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Stop giving out incorrect information, sponges are for mechanical filtration in most cases and hold no where as much bacteria as a good porous media, ceramic is just borderline.

There is nothing about the above that is incorrect. Please tell me where i said sponges offer more surface area than ceramics? What said was that sponges are sufficient in the real world. Sponges come in many different densities and they are not created equally, a fine grade sponge will be utterly useless for mechanical filtration because it will clog in a few days. I suggested ceramic because they offer a decent balance between price and maintenance. They don’t clog like sponges, need little cleaning, have a decent lifespan and lots of surface area. They also don’t need to be cut to shape for the filter basket.

Fish tank filtration is about creating surface area to grow bacteria, having more surface area than you need in your filter gives you precisely zero benefit. You can only grow enough bacteria for how much ‘food’ (ammonia, nitrite) there is in the tank.

If the ‘food’ means 1 million bacteria grow, having the surface area to grow 20 million bacteria isn’t suddenly going to mean more bacteria is going to grow.

And before someone posts ‘yeh but biohome will remove nitrate’; no, it will not in a canister filter, any suggestion it will is snake oil nonsense. The bacteria which break down nitrates are anaerobic meaning you only get them in very low oxygen environments. Those conditions just don’t exist in canister filters which pump around highly oxygenated water at 5-10x the tank volume per hour.

Spending loads of money on designer filter media might make you feel good but it’s a literal waste of money.

 

[Spook187]

There is nothing about the above that is incorrect. Please tell me where i said sponges offer more surface area than ceramics? What said was that sponges are sufficient in the real world. Sponges come in many different densities and they are not created equally, a fine grade sponge will be utterly useless for mechanical filtration because it will clog in a few days. I suggested ceramic because they offer a decent balance between price and maintenance. They don’t clog like sponges, need little cleaning, have a decent lifespan and lots of surface area. They also don’t need to be cut to shape for the filter basket.

Fish tank filtration is about creating surface area to grow bacteria, having more surface area than you need in your filter gives you precisely zero benefit. You can only grow enough bacteria for how much ‘food’ (ammonia, nitrite) there is in the tank.

If the ‘food’ means 1 million bacteria grow, having the surface area to grow 20 million bacteria isn’t suddenly going to mean more bacteria is going to grow.

And before someone posts ‘yeh but biohome will remove nitrate’; no, it will not in a canister filter, any suggestion it will is snake oil nonsense. The bacteria which break down nitrates are anaerobic meaning you only get them in very low oxygen environments. Those conditions just don’t exist in canister filters which pump around highly oxygenated water at 5-10x the tank volume per hour.

Spending loads of money on designer filter media might make you feel good but it’s a literal waste of money.

Who is spending tons of money on designer media gear it's a one of payment that will last over ten years, more than most peoples who have a tank that long, Biohome media is not a snake oil product stop talking nonsense.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Who is spending tons of money on designer media gear it's a one of payment that will last over ten years, more than most peoples who have a tank that long, Biohome media is not a snake oil product stop talking nonsense.

Oh the irony…. Ok I’ll bite.

I never said biohome is a snake oil product, I said people claiming it removes nitrate from the aquarium in a canister filter IS complete nonsense. Anyone with an understanding of the nitrogen cycle and physics will tell you that for the exact reason I set out. It requires a low oxygen environment which is never achieved in a canister filter.

At no point did I say fancy media like biohome isn’t a bad product, I said it’s bad value for money. I.e. you can spend less and get the exact same result. In the real world in a real aquarium with a filter which has a reasonable volume for its size for the tank, ‘fancy’ expensive media which claims to have more surface area than something else provides no benefit because the ‘something else’ already has enough surface area. It’s really that simple and there are just better things to spend your cash on.

Hence my initial recommendation of any media will do, don’t worry about the brand because it all surpasses what’s required. Going out and spending more on on something which provides no benefit is unnecessary. If you want to go any buy fancy expensive filter media because that’s what you want in your canister filter then that’s fine but that doesn’t change anything I have posted here.

 

[Siliconslave]

two quick questions as i'm looking at the same (replacing a filter and swapping out the standard media for something better)

1) are you saying you think the filter pro guy is full of it? He suggests that theres enough 'dead zones' in biohome to allow for anaerobic bacteria to exist outside the oxygenated flow, although i do question how that then has any chance of effecting the water thats passing through...

2) what would you suggest as a decent for bacterial filtration?

 

[Geodude97AD]

It comes with plastic media which is said to only be suitable for ponds and yes I was looking at which ceramic/stone I should get to start it off
Thanks

I would get some filter wool to polish the water, and the rest bio pellets may be some carbon/charcoal. No need for anything fancy, just something for the water to flow through and filter detritus. Personally all you really need is a basic sponge filter and air line as it does the same thing as a cannister filter, water change once a week and wash the sponge in the old tank water.

 

[Geodude97AD]

two quick questions as i'm looking at the same (replacing a filter and swapping out the standard media for something better)

1) are you saying you think the filter pro guy is full of it? He suggests that theres enough 'dead zones' in biohome to allow for anaerobic bacteria to exist outside the oxygenated flow, although i do question how that then has any chance of effecting the water thats passing through...

No, he is likely right but with fresh water its easily enough to do a quick water change and you would likely need a filter the size of a small car to filter a home aquarium that way unless you want two guppies in a 100L tank.

2) what would you suggest as a decent for bacterial filtration?

Basic sponge filter and air line

 

[b0rn2sk8]

two quick questions as i'm looking at the same (replacing a filter and swapping out the standard media for something better)

1) are you saying you think the filter pro guy is full of it? He suggests that theres enough 'dead zones' in biohome to allow for anaerobic bacteria to exist outside the oxygenated flow, although i do question how that then has any chance of effecting the water thats passing through...

2) what would you suggest as a decent for bacterial filtration?

1) That person is selling a product who’s product page is full of a number of vague claims with no detail or evidence. Marketing is everything in the aquarium hobby, just look at the nonsense almost all companies put on their aquarium products. A classic example is goldfish pictures on the packaging for a small aquarium which is hardly suitable for a beta fish.

I don’t doubt that biohome can create the right circumstances for anaerobic bacteria but I’d very much strongly dispute the claim it will do in ‘a wide verity of filters and flow rates’.

You only get low oxygen in very still water, correctly sized canister filters and almost all aquarium filters circulate loads of water for their volume which is the complete opposite of what’s needed to create a low oxygen environment. They flow all that highly oxygenated water directly over the media and you’ll just never create the environment needed.

As the person noted above, to get it to work you need a giant filter, like a sump, that doesn’t channel water over the media so you get pockets of low flow and low oxygen.

2) I’d just use what ever comes with it, it will almost certainly be fine. If it doesn’t come with enough, just get whatever is cost effective.

Spend your money on good food, quiet pumps/filters, good heaters and things you can see. Filter media is literally at the bottom of the list for me.

 

[Spook187]

Oh the irony…. Ok I’ll bite.

I never said biohome is a snake oil product, I said people claiming it removes nitrate from the aquarium in a canister filter IS complete nonsense. Anyone with an understanding of the nitrogen cycle and physics will tell you that for the exact reason I set out. It requires a low oxygen environment which is never achieved in a canister filter.

At no point did I say fancy media like biohome isn’t a bad product, I said it’s bad value for money. I.e. you can spend less and get the exact same result. In the real world in a real aquarium with a filter which has a reasonable volume for its size for the tank, ‘fancy’ expensive media which claims to have more surface area than something else provides no benefit because the ‘something else’ already has enough surface area. It’s really that simple and there are just better things to spend your cash on.

Hence my initial recommendation of any media will do, don’t worry about the brand because it all surpasses what’s required. Going out and spending more on on something which provides no benefit is unnecessary. If you want to go any buy fancy expensive filter media because that’s what you want in your canister filter then that’s fine but that doesn’t change anything I have posted here.

I didn't say nothing about it removing nitrate, i just said it's a good media, i have had sponge filters the lot in the past and it's no good to me as it's more to maintain i can be away from home for weeks with work and the last thing i want to do it sort bloody filters out on my return, i can leave my filter for months without any problems, anyway i gather were talking about freshwater tanks which i have but just leave it to plod along just fine, marine is where it's at these days

 

[SDK^]

The colour on my decorations is slowing disappearing, showing the white plastic structure -Is this normal?

 

[Kyo]

The colour on my decorations is slowing disappearing, showing the white plastic structure -Is this normal?

Yes I think so. My decorations over the years is like that. Wears away I guess.

Could anyone please give some recommendations about treating snail problem with chemical product? Thx in advance.

 

[user_name]

Anything that kills snails will most likely kill anything else living, have you tried lettuce and manual removal?

Introduce something above them in the food chain
assassin snails, puffers, loaches, cichlids, catfish will all eat em

 

[RobTi]

opinions on the jewel bio M filter please, so bought a used rio 240 and it came with one of these but no media or filtration, so are they any good, i was looking to get an external filter before i bought this (oase 350 ) and now i either buy media and sponges now and keep the filter or just go external. any help on this ?
Thanks

 

[Kyo]

opinions on the jewel bio M filter please, so bought a used rio 240 and it came with one of these but no media or filtration, so are they any good, i was looking to get an external filter before i bought this (oase 350 ) and now i either buy media and sponges now and keep the filter or just go external. any help on this ?
Thanks

I was in a similar situation a while back and going for a external cannister (Fluval 307) filter is one of the best decisions i made. Made it so much easier to manage and better water circulation and filtration imo. It also comes with all its own media/sponges at a reasonable price. Again all imo before someone pulls me up on it LoL .

 

[RobTi]

I was in a similar situation a while back and going for a external cannister (Fluval 307) filter is one of the best decisions i made. Made it so much easier to manage and better water circulation and filtration imo. It also comes with all its own media/sponges at a reasonable price. Again all imo before someone pulls me up on it LoL .

Thanks eventually got the inbuilt filter out, don’t know why they silicone it on with 8 blobs anyway I just ordered the oase bio master and will give that a try
Thanks

 

[Siliconslave]

they are a huge pain to get out & a real worry on a new tank my jewel bio M has been sat in the garage since it turned up