AquaClear Filter compartment setting!

[bluesky5683]

Hi everyone, I need some suggestion from you guys. I have a 75g tank and I planning to 8 discus inside and I am using AC 70&110 as my main filteration system but I have some question about the media setting. the reason why I am asking this is because I will be back to Taiwan in the end of June for 3weeks W/O WC So I was thinking 2 methods for the setting.
Method 1: AC sponge foam on the bottom and fill up rest of the space with media or
Method 2: Put 3 layers of filter pads on the bottom and fill up rest of the space with media
I was wondering if method 1 can hold the water condition w/o WC for 3weeks and also I've heard that if there is too much good bactria in the filter media will also ruin the water condition. Please help me out here! should I choose method 1 or 2 or let me know if you guys have any other better suggestions. Thanks

[Jennie]

these filters come with sponge and ceramic media. I did remove the ceramic rings from one of my filters and replace it with sponge feeling this holds more than than the rings.. how you choose your methods is entirely up to you. just keep in mind to clean tank thoroughly, no food after words till you return.. maybe add calcium

[bluesky5683]

these filters come with sponge and ceramic media. I did remove the ceramic rings from one of my filters and replace it with sponge feeling this holds more than than the rings.. how you choose your methods is entirely up to you. just keep in mind to clean tank thoroughly, no food after words till you return.. maybe add calcium

so you mean sponge foam is much better than the ceremic rings to build up the bactria?

[Jennie]

more surface area,. imo

[plecocicho]

Sintered glass (siporax, emfhi substrat or other brand name) has far more surface area than sponge.

[fishorama]

There can only be as much beneficial bacteria as the ammonia (from fish food & waste), there is never an "excess", it will either go dormant or die. I use sponges only in some ACs but usually 2 sponges plus the biomax between. If you won't be feeding (& water changing) as much as usual it shouldn't matter a lot, just don't get carried away cleaning the media before you leave. (I use tap water for cleaning media but have 2 filters on most tanks, if you use tank water there is even less risk)

[jimg]

Sintered glass (siporax, emfhi substrat or other brand name) has far more surface area than sponge.

+1 I have them on all my tanks and rely on the rings for bio, I rinse the sponge every few days but rarely touch the bio material. Some I even add the ehiem substrat to. I always in all my tanks have something bio that I rarely touch but keep clean.The way I look at it is, engineers along with bio specialists design these a certain way for a reason!

[DiscusLoverJeff]

I am currently running an AquaClear 110 and a Fluval 405 for filtration on my 95 gallon planted/discus tank. The bottom of the AQ is a sponge and on top I have the bio media. I clean them both about once every two weeks and I have noti noticed any changes to my water parameters before or after the cleaning under hot tap water. I rinse the sponge until almost all the bad stuff is out. I do not clean it 100% as I think it needs to have some sort of bacteria left in it so it does not feel as if its new. Been running this for 7 months now and no change in water due to the cleaning.

[jimg]

I don't worry too much about bio on the sponges, they are there to keep the bio media clean, but I still won't clean them in anything other than tank temp water because what bacteria is left after cleaning does help.