To media basket or not media basket!

[raditude]

I have a 14g biocube (my baby ) and I'm sick of the stock filters that come with the biocube. They don't work and my tank water looks ridiculously dirty 3 days after a water change.

I've been considering a media basket with floss, chemipure and purigen but I'm still unsure.

I've also tried a protein skimmer and it did absolutely nothing. My tank shouldn't require one from what I've read, so the real question is... What filtration setup do YOU recommend?

Thanks guys!

 

[RossMerrigan]

You should have enough biological filtration from your live rock so really you can experiment to see what works best for your system. I think the Media basket is a good idea.. How long has it been setup?

 

[ReefMadScientist]

When I had a biocube, I too got tired of running the filter carbon. I ended up taking it out after my tank was established and had no ill-effects. I just stuffed that area with more rock.

 

[Amoo]

Media Basket in my 28 cube with GAC, GFO and Floss, no skimmer

 

[JakeK]

I have a 29 BC and I'm running the media basket with filter floss & clear fx pro in the top, purigen in second chamber, and carbon in the third. I also have a Tunze 9001 skimmer and SeaChem bio matrix in the second chamber. It's loaded! I noticed that my algae started to wither away after I started skimming. I can only do 3.5 gallon water changes weekly with little ones in the house so the skimmer has helped me out. They are finicky though. You have to keep the water level just right in order for a skimmer to work properly. Some are more sensitive than others too.

If you do decided to remove the stock filtration and the bioballs, I have heard to remove the bioballs in waves instead of all at once. It's part of your biological filter and removing too much can cause a spike in ammonia, nitrites and/or nitrates.

 

[subielover]

I use the media basket in my BC14 and wouldn't want to run it any other way. It works perfectly and redirects almost 100% of the water from chamber 1 into and down through your filter and chemical media in chamber 2. Bite the bullet and go for it, I promise you that you will not be disappointed. FWIW, I run the filter floss that StevieT sells, purigen and chemi pure blue.

 

[Khh27]

Just try chemipure and good weekly water changes and you should be fine the sponge will just create more work for you and once it's established the live rock will do most of the work anyways. I really like chemipure and have seen great results with it.