Blue bonded pads or quilt batting?

barbarossa4122

barbarossa4122

AC Members
Nov 21, 2009
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New York City
Which one does a better job? I am using the blue bonded pads and polly floss. I would like to get some quilt batting but the closest Wally is 20 miles away. My wife got some but is fire retardant.... I can't use it.
 
How are you going to use it? If you have an hob the bonded pad would be better,as it is more porous and less likely to clog. The batting would be good as a final polishing media in a canister filter.
 
gmh said:
How are you going to use it? If you have an hob the bonded pad would be better,as it is more porous and less likely to clog. The batting would be good as a final polishing media in a canister filter.
Click to expand...

I have 2 Aqueon55, 1 Emperor and 1 whisper ex45 for a 30g tank and a 55g tank. I have about 6 months supply of blue bonded pads, poly fill and Purigen
Thank you for your advice. It looks like I'll stick with the blue stuff, poly fill and Purigen.

Should I use any additional stuff for mechanical filtration and if yes, which?

Water parameters are:

Ph: 7.2
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 5 after WC, 10 before WC.

I have 2 planted goldfish tanks.
 
I would stay away from filter floss. It does a GREAT job at mechanical filtration- so well that it clogs in very short time. The blue bonded pads don't let much get through, and will function much longer without getting gunked up to the point it retards water flow.
 
My media in the canister filters I run for my 29/55/75 are:

3" trays from bottom to top as the water flows:

Tray #1
3/4" 50ppm foam
3/4" 30ppm foam
1.5" floss

Tray #2
Plastic Scrubbies

Tray #3
50 Micron filter pad(reusable)
100 Micron Filter pad(reusable)
What ever bio material that came with the filter

I only need to clean about once a month on my real heavy loaded tank (the 75 with messy large fish) to 3 months on the smaller tank. When I do clean all I do is replace the floss, rinse the sponges and swap out the micron pads for clean ones, only takes about 3 minutes per canister. But I'm way over bio filtered according to this article Plants and Biological filtration which I found interesting and plan to put to the test as soon as I get to identical tanks setup. Cost about $15 for all three filters per year after the first setup cost.

My tanks stay nice and clear and my water conditions never change.

Hope that may help.
 
I diy(thanks to tips from this and other sites) my Emperor cartridges using the frame from the original cartridges and use one piece cut to fit blue bonded stuff and one piece poly floss . The water flow it's Ok but is a little slower than it used to be with the original cartridges. I also have the grey empty frames filled with Biomax.

I also bought this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=13371 but did not use it yet.
 
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I use poly-fill or felt in all my systems including sumps. It does far better at cleaning/polishing than the cartridges and for about 1/10th of the cost.
 
Got my poly quilt batting today from a fabric store in Manhattan.........96" by 43" for $10.00. Good price?
 
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