Media for a 20g IM Pen

[High Plains Reefer]

I got my first 20g AIO its a IM pen I'm just wondering what would be the best media to use in the caddy currently it only has a sponge a very dirty one too I'm going to do a water change tomorrow and I was going to use the old water to clean it

 

[christianscorals]

i'm not too familiar with the tank but maybe some activated carbon or seeded biomedia from a local reefer or LFS?

 

[LuizW13]

The answer to your question can depend on your current situation and tanks environment.

Typically, you’d have a filter pad, carbon, phosphate reducing media, biomedia,etc. whatever would work best for you.

In my 50g, I have caddy in the right side, with filter pad on top, filter pad in the middle and chemipure ( the one without phosphate reducing media). In the left side, I have a filter sock with carbon, and a filter pad sitting on the top of that. In the two inner chambers, I have left over rock and a skimmer.

if you’re not having issues with high phosphates, I’d do filter pad > bio media, like left over rubble > carbon.

 

[Azedenkae]

I got my first 20g AIO its a IM pen I'm just wondering what would be the best media to use in the caddy currently it only has a sponge a very dirty one too I'm going to do a water change tomorrow and I was going to use the old water to clean it

I had a 20 gallon NuvoAquarium before - the standard one not the peninsula, but would be same concept essentially.

I ended up removing everything and just having biomedia - MarinePure, not whatever came with the stock tank. That was it.

I even removed any mechanical filtration to let brine shrimp and stuff through.

 

[ylreefer]

I think you're the best person to newer that question actually.

Look at it lit this. Whatever your put in the back has a job to do, what type of job you need it to do will dictate what you put back there.

The options are endless really. But consider things like. What will you bio load be? If high then maybe more bio media, that, may be rock rubble or ceramic spheres for example, or do you have a high phosphate level, in which case you add something to reduce that.

I've been through a few nanos in my time. And large tanks, I'm actually setting up a nano right now and I want this one to be super low maintenance, I will be doing regular water changes, but on 15g that's a 15 min job. I won't be using any mechanical media as I don't want to have to keep changing or washing that every 3 days. The first chamber will be a fuge, second maybe bio bricks and heater. And lastly return pump. I should say I'm using live rock from my 180g.

So the point is you will use whatever you need at the moment. What you start off with may not be what your tank needs in 6 months. So plan ahead and plan for your stocking levels. .

 

[High Plains Reefer]

I'm looking for bio ATM I cleaned the sand real good and got all the rubble I could find out of it and put what I could in the caddy and rinsed out the sponges they were filthy hopefully tomorrow the water will be more clear I was thinking about marine pure or brightwell but I have heard that they both have problems with breaking down would there be another alternative to those I did a 50%WC yesterday and today and it looks much better this was a very neglected tank