AquaClear owners, wanna talk media/maintenance?

[cohazard]

Hey fellow AC owners. I have 2 110's, and I've asked about what your preference is for media and most people keep two sponges in their AquaClears.

A lot of people detest the biomax stuff, calling it junk, but I honestly don't see why. It's just like the bioballs in a wet/dry filter, only they're more porous which equals more surface area for nitrifying bacteria to grow on.

Currently I have 1 sponge and a bag of biomax in each of my 110's. I've been thinking about either adding another sponge to the mix, or another bag of biomax.

Which do you think would be a better combo, and be honest. I know the more experienced aquarists can be a little jaded, but try to see past the marketing ploy behind the biomax and think of it's true usefulness, before you answer.

Basically I'm asking because I want to maximize the biological efficiency of my filters. I get the feeling I'm killing a ton of good bacteria when I rinse the sponges, since I clean them under tap water.

 

[El Barto]

here's what i do. i got filter floss on the bottom , a sponge on top and the ceramic rings on top. once month i put in some carbon to remove tanins from the driftwood . this is working great for me so far.

 

[Kasakato]

2 sponges with BioMax.

 

[cohazard]

here's what i do. i got filter floss on the bottom , a sponge on top and the ceramic rings on top. once month i put in some carbon to remove tanins from the driftwood . this is working great for me so far.

Does your sponge become a poop brick? or does most of it get trapped by the floss?

2 sponges with BioMax.

Any reason in particular why you use that combo?

 

[Kasakato]

NO real reason other than it works well. I some times toss in some floss if I have the time. The sponges take out the big things, the floss takes care of the little, and the BioMax grows my bacteria.

 

[El Barto]

same here

 

[SCU33ZE]

I have 2 AC minis on my 12g
One crammed with 1'' bioballs
and the other one has two sponges.
Works greeat and the bioballs dont clog in a looong time

 

[Kasakato]

Here comes JA with his BioBall fiter

 

[cohazard]

I have 2 AC minis on my 12g
One crammed with 1'' bioballs
and the other one has two sponges.
Works greeat and the bioballs dont clog in a looong time

That sounds like a good idea. I plan on buying two more large AC filters, so I could use 2 of them for heavy duty mechanical/chemical filtration, and the other two for optimal biological filtration (maximum flow through the ceramic rings, by eliminating the sponge).

I guess it's something I'll have to experiment with, but I get the feeling that ultimately, all the combos equal out when maintained properly.

 

[-max-]

Geez, I like ACs, but the pastic is too britle. One of the sides of my 500 has a peice broke off of it so I can't really use it anymore. I've always put a sponge or two in it. It's just great for bio filtration and circulation.