Filter questions (HOB)

[boboyo]

Noob here - been getting a lot of different advice on filters and it's kindof frustrating since everyone says different things in person and online.

I have a hob filter with a sponge, carbon and biomax. The lady at my LFS said to not put the biomax in salt water as it can cause high nitrates - is there any explanation why? Assuming i rinse it once a week when i rinse the sponge with aquarium water.

Yesterday, the guy who sold me my tank said I only need the carbon? Since I have a skimmer (which wasnt active until today as I wanted to speed up cycle with bottled bacteria). I tend to follow his advice the most as he has a 300gal display tank and a huuuge frag tank in his garage (he gave me 7 begginer frags for 40$ which includes 3 super fancy zoas). What would carbon even do in my situation other than making water clear?

At another LFS the guy said I needed cartridges for ammonia and something else on top of my 3 layers? (probably just trying to sell things to a noob).

The biomax has been in for 8 days now for those that are asking after doing a lot of research i told myself since its a 50/50 online ill give it a shot. I know the info is changing really fast in this hobby.



I was also told not to rinse the filter on the same day as water changes, how long should I space the 2 out?

 

[saltybees]

Biomax doesnt really do anything if you have enough rock in your tank, and you don’t want to wash biomedia it’s supposed to hold bacteria that provides “bio”logical filtration.
If you’re using a hob filter use a sponge or filter floss and an appropriate amount of chemipure elite.

 

[Jesse O.]

Noob here - been getting a lot of different advice on filters and it's kindof frustrating since everyone says different things in person and online.

I have a hob filter with a sponge, carbon and biomax. The lady at my LFS said to not put the biomax in salt water as it can cause high nitrates - is there any explanation why? Assuming i rinse it once a week when i rinse the sponge with aquarium water.

Yesterday, the guy who sold me my tank said I only need the carbon? Since I have a skimmer (which wasnt active until today as I wanted to speed up cycle with bottled bacteria). I tend to follow his advice the most as he has a 300gal display tank and a huuuge frag tank in his garage (he gave me 7 begginer frags for 40$ which includes 3 super fancy zoas). What would carbon even do in my situation other than making water clear?

At another LFS the guy said I needed cartridges for ammonia and something else on top of my 3 layers? (probably just trying to sell things to a noob).

The biomax has been in for 8 days now for those that are asking after doing a lot of research i told myself since its a 50/50 online ill give it a shot. I know the info is changing really fast in this hobby.



I was also told not to rinse the filter on the same day as water changes, how long should I space the 2 out?

I recommend the fluval aquaclear HOB filters, they do an excellent job in filtering tanks. All of my tanks currently use one. Carbon does more than just clear up the water, it also improves water quality by constantly removing impurities from the water. You can theoretically use only activated carbon in a filter and should be fine, provided you have an established tank with plenty of bacteria in the rocks/ sand etc. When I clean my tanks I clean all of the equipment at the same time, but my tanks are established and I don't have to worry about messing up the environment too much. If you are still cycling/ not fully established then you should space out the water changes and filter cleaning by about a week. Try and see if you can get a bottle of "Turbostart" nitrifying bacteria, it is live bacteria culture that seeds your tank with the beneficial bacteria and can quickly cycle a tank. Good luck!

 

[boboyo]

Biomax doesnt really do anything if you have enough rock in your tank, and you don’t want to wash biomedia it’s supposed to hold bacteria that provides “bio”logical filtration.
If you’re using a hob filter use a sponge or filter floss and an appropriate amount of chemipure elite.

So I shouldnt rinse out the sponge either from time to time? It gets pretty nasty. I also recently read somewher ethat biomax and sponges are nitrate traps. How is that different than Live rock?

 

[boboyo]

I recommend the fluval aquaclear HOB filters, they do an excellent job in filtering tanks. All of my tanks currently use one. Carbon does more than just clear up the water, it also improves water quality by constantly removing impurities from the water. You can theoretically use only activated carbon in a filter and should be fine, provided you have an established tank with plenty of bacteria in the rocks/ sand etc. When I clean my tanks I clean all of the equipment at the same time, but my tanks are established and I don't have to worry about messing up the environment too much. If you are still cycling/ not fully established then you should space out the water changes and filter cleaning by about a week. Try and see if you can get a bottle of "Turbostart" nitrifying bacteria, it is live bacteria culture that seeds your tank with the beneficial bacteria and can quickly cycle a tank. Good luck!

Tank was able to fully process the ammonia within 8 days and maybe a week after that nitrites shot down to 0 within a day. I still add some microbacter from time to time just in case since I have a decent amount of fish already but everything is fine! I started the cycle with aquavitro seed so I bought microbacter7 when I ran out. Everything is going pretty amazing except for 2 zoa frags not wanting to open and a toadstool frag shrinking. But my duncan, other zoas, gsp and sinulara are doing great!!!!!!

 

[Jesse O.]

So I shouldnt rinse out the sponge either from time to time? It gets pretty nasty. I also recently read somewher ethat biomax and sponges are nitrate traps. How is that different than Live rock?

Yes you should rinse out the sponges when you see detritus/ ammonia building up on them. I'm not sure what exactly are the differences between live rock and other filter media but I assume that its because live rock is also a home to critters like detritus eating bacteria/ scavengers etc.

 

[Jesse O.]

Tank was able to fully process the ammonia within 8 days and maybe a week after that nitrites shot down to 0 within a day. I still add some microbacter from time to time just in case since I have a decent amount of fish already but everything is fine! I started the cycle with aquavitro seed so I bought microbacter7 when I ran out. Everything is going pretty amazing except for 2 zoa frags not wanting to open and a toadstool frag shrinking. But my duncan, other zoas, gsp and sinulara are doing great!!!!!!

That's good to hear! You got a really good deal on those coral lol. For those coral that aren't doing so well it could probably be lighting issue or maybe even low calcium.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

Live rock has more anaerobic bacteria which break down nitrate, and thus produces less nitrate.

 

[boboyo]

That's good to hear! You got a really good deal on those coral lol. For those coral that aren't doing so well it could probably be lighting issue or maybe even low calcium.

Guess I'll have to do research on that now. I thought calcium was only for harder to keep corals. Good thing I already have a bottle of concentrated calcium from the guy that sold me his old tank. Also The light thing is pretty tricky. I followed every guideline I could find online to place them properly. I guess ill move them in a couple of days if the calcium doesnt help!

Great advice, thank you!

Could it be a nitrate issue? I really try to keep it around 20 but I'm colourblind when it comes to API test kits - when the tube is on the paper its a lot darker than if i hold it up a few feet from a white wall...
Turbo cycling a tank has its own problems I guess. I do a 4 gallon wc 2 times per week and 8ish gallons on sundays until its under control but having no algae blooms yet really doesnt help with keeping nitrates down. I spotted a few brown spots which I assume are diatoms, hopefully theyre gonna eat some of it.

 

[Jesse O.]

Guess I'll have to do research on that now. I thought calcium was only for harder to keep corals. Good thing I already have a bottle of concentrated calcium from the guy that sold me his old tank. Also The light thing is pretty tricky. I followed every guideline I could find online to place them properly. I guess ill move them in a couple of days if the calcium doesnt help!

Great advice, thank you!

Could it be a nitrate issue? I really try to keep it around 20 but I'm colourblind when it comes to API test kits - when the tube is on the paper its a lot darker than if i hold it up a few feet from a white wall...
Turbo cycling a tank has its own problems I guess. I do a 4 gallon wc 2 times per week and 8ish gallons on sundays until its under control but having no algae blooms yet really doesnt help with keeping nitrates down. I spotted a few brown spots which I assume are diatoms, hopefully theyre gonna eat some of it.

Well stony corals use calcium to build their skeletons so you could look into that. How big is your tank btw?

 

[boboyo]

Well stony corals use calcium to build their skeletons so you could look into that. How big is your tank btw?

about 60gal. And ill read up on calcium tomorrow when i wake up. I have nothing stony tho