Nanocubes-aquapod- what to use for filtration?

[DizziDezi2]

My Nanocube came with plastic ballas and like wooden hoop things in a bag- I put live rock rubble in chamber 2 and three and kept the wooden hoops. It doesnt seem to be working too well - there is stuff floating around in my water? Is anyone using regular filter pads and cutting them downt o size?

 

[wav3form]

Live rock is your biological filter unless you're not using live rock then yes, you'll have to use the bio-balls and ceramic media. You can run a sponge to act as a mechanical filter to get floating stuff out of the water but you have to clean it often so waste doesn't build up.

 

[SeaSwag]

Are you talking about the ceramic pieces that look like combo's You don't want to use them or the bio balls. Plus take out all the sponges except 1 and I think that with all the LR rubble you have it is putting alot of detrius in your system. I had LR rubble in the middle chamber of my cube but it was trapping crap in there and the oly way to clean it out was removing all the rubble out which was a PITA. I just took out the rubble and put in some cheato and made a small fuge.

 

[DizziDezi2]

yea- to be honest- I dont think the LRRubble is working too great. I dont want to set up a fuge- and there is no light back there- so I was thinking of maybe getting some regular old filter pads to stick in there. I thought a better powerhead other then stock might help as well- the one it came with is cheap. Thoughts?

 

[SeaSwag]

Know what I just thought of this if you have a LFS that sells the tonga live rock that looks like thick branches you can buy a piece or 2 and put it in the back chamber instead of the rubble. That is what I would do if you don't want to make one of the back chambers into a fuge. Also I don't hear many people complain about the stock pump in the 24 gal but I hear about them adding a 2nd pump for more circulation, its usually a Maxi-Jet 900 or 1200.

 

[beyondtheblue]

Most people including myself..replace the stock pump for a maxijet 1200. The major reason is more flow and lower heat. The wattage is much lower than stock.

 

[hgbarwick]

If you don't have any light on the back chamber then live rock will be useless. The coraline needs light to grow.

 

[Illuminati]

My setup

Chamber 1 - Chemipure on bottom, Filter Floss on top (Sponge is to tought to clean)

Chamber 2 - Phosban or Purigen as needed

Chamber 3 - MaxiJet 1200.

I personally hate the idea of keeping rubble in the back chambers.

 

[DizziDezi2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8084538#post8084538 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hgbarwick
If you don't have any light on the back chamber then live rock will be useless. The coraline needs light to grow.

Coraline helps filtration? What is Filter floss? Yea- I need to replace the pump because the water seems kind of stagnant. Do I just pop the hose off and replace? What about some carbon that doesnt "leak phosphates" as I already have a bit of an algea problem.


Story: Set tank up w/ rock from old tank- forgot about tank- rock sat in lightless water for months. Cleaned rock under tap water replaced in cube w/ fresh water from existing tank. Nit- 0 Ammonia-Trace Nitrate- O Phosphates - less then 2 THats all I know right now. Confuzed.

 

[Illuminati]

Check out www.drfosterandsmith.com for filter floss. It looks like dental floss that you can use instead of the sponge. If you want to use the sponge make sure you clean it real good every week. I can't imagine getting all of the crud out of the sponge. You could cut the sponge in half to make it easier to clean.

For the pump yeah just pop the hose off and replace.
I would reccomend keeping the suction cup bracket that are on the back of the MaxiJets when you put it in the chamber. Without it the vibration of the pump against the bottom glass could get annoying.

Some people who reuse cured rocks never get a cycle. What is the salinity level?

 

[manse]

I use Filter Floss in the first chamber, right next to the intake, Phosban and liverock under that, liverock in the other two chambers.

You don't need coraline on the liverock for it to do its thing.

 

[noschmo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8082786#post8082786 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DizziDezi2
yea- to be honest- I dont think the LRRubble is working too great. I dont want to set up a fuge- and there is no light back there- so I was thinking of maybe getting some regular old filter pads to stick in there. I thought a better powerhead other then stock might help as well- the one it came with is cheap. Thoughts?

The fuge with macro and rubble doesn not work as well as some suggest. I have gone to using poly pads, not floss, sponge and bags of carbon. LR rubble is not going to give any real bio filtering when compared to the pounds of the stuff used in the tank. I emphasis mechanical filtration in the chammbers, change the pads every other day and do water changes very frequently. We have three Nano's of various sizes going.

 

[manse]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8091682#post8091682 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by noschmo
The fuge with macro and rubble doesn not work as well as some suggest. I have gone to using poly pads, not floss, sponge and bags of carbon. LR rubble is not going to give any real bio filtering when compared to the pounds of the stuff used in the tank. I emphasis mechanical filtration in the chammbers, change the pads every other day and do water changes very frequently. We have three Nano's of various sizes going.

I agree that the LR rubble in the back is not as great as the LR in the main tank, but I think it is better to put LR rubble back there instead of the ceramic noodles and Bio Balls that come with the "all-in-one" nanos.

The sponge should be chucked, IMHO.