Proper Stacking in My New Canister Filter...

[downstreamer]

Hey, folks. Well, I have my new canister filters set up and running, one on each tank with one of my HOB's running on each as well. I have the 3 trays stacked in the following order:

-Bottom...rough filter padding, mesh bag of carbon diamond mix.

-Middle...finer filter padding, mesh bag stuffed with polyester "pillow" fiber.

-Top...finer filter padding, ceremic noodle pieces and Bio-balls.

Does this sound like a good setup?

[terrapin24h]

with mine, i have found that you really have to pack the tray with filter floss/polyester. Reason being is that it compresses alot when it gets wet. If you filled your trays, let iut run for a day or two then check, i bet you'll have alot more room in the tray. My stacking is as follows:
bottom tray-->crushed coral(my water needs buffering help) and jammed full of floss
middle tray-->Yet more floss, ceramic noodles
top tray-->noodles

I have 05 fluval, so i have a whole separate section of course media. Yours sounds good to me

--chris

[Lady Hobbs]

Sounds perfect to me. I keep biomax only in the top baskets but your set up sounds just as good.

[downstreamer]

Awesome. Good to get some confirmation. Thanks.

[procyg]

awesome been searching for a post like this for a while.

I was looking for some confirmation myself with my new canister. The canister I got didn't come with coarse media but it came with 3 trays and 3 fine filter pads. I picked up some filter fiber and I was going to replace the fine filter pads with that and then get a coarse filter for the bottom tray. So my setup would be

Bottom:
coarse filter pad with filter fiber on top
Middle
filter fiber with ceramic rings in mesh bag on top
filter fiber with bio balls on top

I have seen some instructions that the filter pad / fiber needs to be on top of the rings and bio balls and other places that states it should be on the bottom.