Figure 8 Filtration Question
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 1:17 pm
Hello, everyone!
I'm in the process of setting up my first fish tank in over 10 years away from the hobby -- a 20H brackish for a Figure 8 Puffer, possibly with an Orange Chromide tankmate. I've done a fair amount of research on how to set it up, but one thing I'm not sure about is what filter media to use and how to arrange it.
My filter is an Eheim Ecco canister with 4 media trays. It's an older model without the prefilter ring. I don't know how the water flow works, the inlet and outlet are both at the top, though I read somewhere that the water goes in from the top but along the sides and then out from the bottom up. I found a pdf of the owner's manual, and the media arrangement it shows is one course pad on the very bottom, a fine pad at the top of the first tray, and their SubstratPro (which I guess is pretty much like Fluval's Biomax or any other ceramic media) everywhere in between.
The problem is, I don't have a ton of money to invest in this, and that ceramic stuff adds up fast. I'm not opposed to buying a tray's worth (which I believe would be about 1 ltr), but I can't spend $70+ on ceramic rings. I have most of the equipment I need, including a bunch of those foam pads. I have some bioballs, although they might be a bit big. I'm guessing a layer of bio-balls would only be like 1-ball deep. I also have a fair amount of coral/formerly live rock rubble from a marine tank I used to have, and I was thinking of using this to fill out the rest of the trays (if I have enough), but I'm not sure whether that's a good idea.
Any thoughts?
I'm in the process of setting up my first fish tank in over 10 years away from the hobby -- a 20H brackish for a Figure 8 Puffer, possibly with an Orange Chromide tankmate. I've done a fair amount of research on how to set it up, but one thing I'm not sure about is what filter media to use and how to arrange it.
My filter is an Eheim Ecco canister with 4 media trays. It's an older model without the prefilter ring. I don't know how the water flow works, the inlet and outlet are both at the top, though I read somewhere that the water goes in from the top but along the sides and then out from the bottom up. I found a pdf of the owner's manual, and the media arrangement it shows is one course pad on the very bottom, a fine pad at the top of the first tray, and their SubstratPro (which I guess is pretty much like Fluval's Biomax or any other ceramic media) everywhere in between.
The problem is, I don't have a ton of money to invest in this, and that ceramic stuff adds up fast. I'm not opposed to buying a tray's worth (which I believe would be about 1 ltr), but I can't spend $70+ on ceramic rings. I have most of the equipment I need, including a bunch of those foam pads. I have some bioballs, although they might be a bit big. I'm guessing a layer of bio-balls would only be like 1-ball deep. I also have a fair amount of coral/formerly live rock rubble from a marine tank I used to have, and I was thinking of using this to fill out the rest of the trays (if I have enough), but I'm not sure whether that's a good idea.
Any thoughts?