I have an xp3 that I will be running on a 75g community tank. I have a second xp3 as back up. I am curious if anyone has any experience with foams of different pores per inch in a canister other than 20 and 30, which is what the xp3 comes with. I had the unit running on my old 55g and didn't have any issues....I'm just curious of how much, if any, of a difference 15 ppi before the 20 ppi and maybe 40 ppi after the 30 ppi would make. I also use filter floss. Anyone have any thoughts/opinions on this? Thanks.
Curious about foam filter media...
- Thread starter tarquin375
- Start date
This is, in my opinion, this is a case of average = good enough.
20 ppi and 30 ppi are in general use as they fill most needs for aquarium filtration. Floss will polish and is readily available. 50 ppi foam would I think, be hard to rinse.
I picked up some floor buffing disks that are more coarse, to experiment with.
20 ppi and 30 ppi are in general use as they fill most needs for aquarium filtration. Floss will polish and is readily available. 50 ppi foam would I think, be hard to rinse.
I picked up some floor buffing disks that are more coarse, to experiment with.
I was kinda thinkin the same thing, you see 20 and 30 ppi available in stock you can cut to fit at various retailers, I was actually more curious about the 15 ppi as a sort of pre-filter to the 20 ppi...
If you would, post your results on the floor buffing pad experiment...
If you would, post your results on the floor buffing pad experiment...
the finer the filtration media the more often you will have to clean / replace your media. I remember back in the day some company came out with a DE impregnated pad that did an incredible job. Problem was it did too good of a job and you had to clean your filter out after a couple days.
IMO fine polishing the water should not be an option for 24/7 filtration as it forces you to maintain the equipment more often.
IMO fine polishing the water should not be an option for 24/7 filtration as it forces you to maintain the equipment more often.
I agree with the remarks about fine filter media...part of the reason I got curious about the 40 ppi between the 30 ppi and the floss, maybe extending the life of the floss. With the 15 ppi I was curious about it being effective in catching some of the larger debris before it hits the 20 ppi, again, prolonging the life (before needing rinsed) of the 20.
BettaFishMommy
finkids make me happy :-)
in my rena xp4 i'm running three different densities of sponge. i can't recall what the ppi is on all of them, but the finest is two of the stock sponges that came new with my xp2, and the coarsest is the other two sponges that came with the xp2. the other sponge is one i bought in bulk at a local lfs and cut down to fit the rena baskets, and is in between the densities of the rena stock sponges.
i configured my media to be (from bottom to top in the xp4): coarse xp sponge, medium density sponge, fine xp sponge, biomax, polyester batting. all media gets rinsed in tank water and the batting gets replaced (even though i could rinse and re-use it, but i'm lazy, lol). i clean my rena only every couple/few months nowadays, and that's with two big messy fish in the tank (oscar and paratilapia polleni). i don't see any flow reduction in between cleanings. also have an Aquaclear 110 on the tank with sponge and biomax in it.
i configured my media to be (from bottom to top in the xp4): coarse xp sponge, medium density sponge, fine xp sponge, biomax, polyester batting. all media gets rinsed in tank water and the batting gets replaced (even though i could rinse and re-use it, but i'm lazy, lol). i clean my rena only every couple/few months nowadays, and that's with two big messy fish in the tank (oscar and paratilapia polleni). i don't see any flow reduction in between cleanings. also have an Aquaclear 110 on the tank with sponge and biomax in it.
FYI, BettaFishMommy, the stock, coarse xp sponge is 20 ppi and the stock, fine xp sponge is 30 ppi. The sponge you got ar your lfs must be in between, maybe a 25 ppi ? Perhaps a quick phone call could shed some light on that for ya...thanks for the input.
BettaFishMommy
finkids make me happy :-)
meh, i don't need to know the ppi, i just need to know that it is effective in my canister and i don't need to do filter cleaning very often 