Filter Media

[lak]

I recently broke down and steralised my 20G after two deaths. I threw out the filter media when I did this. I am now cycling the tank and am probably going to use it for tropicals.

I have an Elite Stingray internal filter and a Fluval 2+. I bought new sponge for the stingray and where the carbon/zeolite basket things are meant to go I filled with ceramic rings.

At the moment the Fluval is filled only with ceramic rings and has no sponge.

Is it OK to rely so much on ceramic rings or should I get some sponge for the Fluval and have it half and half?

Are there any disadvantages to having ceramic rings instead of sponge?

Previously I used sponge in the Fluval.

[goldfishlover10]

You should add some sponge to the fluval in my opinion. Since stuffing the whole filter with mechanical media won't really help and carbon is pretty much just useless. I'm not sure the stingray would be enough by itself. Whats the gph on it? And it depends on how many fish and what kind you keep in the tank.

[katmad]

i think the stingray is not big enough for that tank alone, from what i know it is only a small filter?? maybe i'm wrong

I personally have fluval 2+ and 3+ filters and i stuff them as full of sponge as i can, lots of breeding ground for beneficial bacteria and filters the water so well it's always sparkling!

i have never used ceramic rings though (what do they do that is better than usual filter pads??) so i cant offer any advice on whether you should use lots or few of them in your filter. but i will reccommend having some sponge in there to catch the waste etc floating round the tank and keep the water looking clean(not cloudy/messy)

[lak]

Just to make it clear - I was not suggesting using the stingray on its own, whatever I do I will use both.

I am not sure if I was correct when I said ceramic rings - the stuff I am using is Fluval Bio-Max (is that the same or something different?) The idea (as I understand it) is that the rings are very porous and are good for growing bacteria. So it is biological rather than mechanical media.

My concern was exactly as you stated though, that they would not be much help with catching debris in the tank. I am thinking of filling the bottom half with sponge and the top half with Bio-Max instead.

[CometKeeper]

IMHO, the sponge is going to be much more useful to you than the BioMax. I'm not wild about Biomax. I just took several bags out of the sump on my wet/dry filter because it was leaching ceramic "dust" that looked like a major calcium build up. And yup, I had rinsed it a lot before using it. I imagine that would be rough on the impellar in your canister over the longhaul. I tossed some Aquaclear sponge blocks in the wet/dry sump, instead. Sponge is hard to beat. I'm also going to get some of the Bio-Bale media I keep reading about. It is a pvc ribbon and s'posed to be the best bio-media ever made. I'll let ya know!