seeding a tank and got question

[Angelfish11788]

so seeding my media for my 55 and was gonna start me another biomax bag up, well i made me a bag so i could custom my bio and today at petsmart, I think i got the wrong stuff. Instead of the biomax by aquaclear everything is now fluval and i got somthing else instead. It is called pre-filter media. It looks just like biomax and feels like it; but it says it is to trap small paricles. Will this be ok, or will it break down.

[Cliff]

Fluval does make a pre-filter media that is the size and shape of bio-max, but the surface is smooth. The prefilter stuff is meant to be used as mechanical filteration, not biological. With the smooth surface, your nor going to grow a lot of bacteria on it. I made the same mistake once and bought the pre-filter stuff thinking it was the same as biomax. There is a fluval brand of bio-max, that is the stuff you want

Prefilter rings
http://ca-en.hagen.com/Aquatic/Media...External/A1470

Fluval biomax rings
http://ca-en.hagen.com/Aquatic/Media...External/A1457

[Angelfish11788]

thanks, I will trade it out, thanks. Did not know it was smooth. just that it did come with more media that the "bimax" stuff