My first canister filter, setup questions.

smyke

smyke

newbie
Oct 9, 2007
509
0
16
Connecticut
Real Name
Mike
I will be setting up my new canister filter for the first time ever and have some questions. BTW, I am currently running and emperor 280 (HOB).

First of all it is a Jebo 828 / Odyssea CS4 that I bought on Ebay for under $70 (incl. shipping). it fit my budget so I ran with it.

here are the pictures of what the parts and media look like.

These are not my pics and I copied them from another forum just to show you guys whats in there.

filter_bits.jpg


filter_basketry.jpg



Questions and concerns:

I wanted to place the spray bar horizontally along the top edge of the side wall where it would be hidden by the tank frame. Is that OK? or should I place it vertically? is there a pro or con to either one?

picture above shows 2 baskets with ceramic bio media but I received one with some kind of white crystals in it. what is that?

Also all 4 media baskets are lined with the blue "floss pad", same kind used on emperor HOB filter cartridges. Do I keep the floss pads in there?

how do I arrange the media? they have the coarse sponge on top, then ceramic bio media, then carbon and the white crystals on the bottom. is that the good order?

As far as growing the bacteria on the media, should I run both filters for a couple of weeks or just squeeze some gunk onto the new sponge from the old one and call it a day?

Please let me know what you think.
 
You can run the spraybar anyway you want, as long as your fish don't mind.

You usually stack the media from the coarse to fine (in the order that the water passes from coarse first and fine last). It is also up to you if you wish to use the filter floss in all baskets or just one.

As for aging the media, you can just grab some aged media from your old filter and run it in your new one, which will also speed up the cycle (if you're running it on a newly setup tank, if it's for the established tank I wouldn't worry about it and just run it out of the box, just rinse everything under warm water before you set it up).

Not sure what the white crystal media is.
 
Running the old filter a couple of weeks would be the safest way to go. The white crystals might be zeolite. Just a guess. The order of the baskets sounds good.
 
thanks all

it is an established tank so there should be plenty of bacteria in other places but I will run the old filter with the new one for a little bit just to be sure.

If I didnt use floss in every single tray would that increase the flow or not make any difference?

I am thinking of doing this:

1. sponge with floss under
2. ceramic bio media
3. pot scrubbers
4. carbon with floss under (just so it doesnt fall through)

this should be OK, right?
 
krytan said:
Why don't you just run both filters all the time, all my tanks have more than one filter.
Click to expand...
If you could run both, it would be a good idea........:)
 
You should run both for about a month. Removing the HOB at the same time you add the cannister will trigger at least a mini cycle, and probably something larger. Run both filters for at least 2 weeks to allow bacteria to build up in the cannister, and then you can remove the HOB.

I've learned from experience the #1 virtue in an aquarium is patience.
 
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