Rena XP3 set up questions?

[Davered00ss]

I just bought a Rena XP3 for my 75 community tank. I thought it would come complete with everything to set it up, but I guess not. As far as how to set up the baskets.....It came with several filter pads for the upper & lower basket, and a Carbon bag.

there is room to put something else in the baskets. What about the microbiological media? How much should I get to put in? Is one type better than another? Can you overfill it with bio media?

Any other advice would be helpful.

Thanks,
Dave

[kaybee]

Canisters provide lots of versatility as far as what type of media you want to utilize, particularly if the canister is used to supplement (or is supplemented by) a HOB filter.

I recommend to save the 'Bio Chem Zorb' (the 'carbon bag' which also contains ammonia removing media, if I'm not mistaken) for an emergency and replace it with bio-media. Most of my XP3's are predominently filled with biologic media (bio-chem stars, ceramic noodles, left over Seachem Matrix rocks, etc). You can't "overfill" the canister with biological media.

You could also configure them to perform a mechanical filtration role (using pads in each basket as opposed to the top and bottom one, etc). There's a trade off though (increased mechanical filtration but lower flow rate).

[Davered00ss]

Any Bio media any better than the others? I was just going to go to petco or petsmart and get whatever was the cheapest.

[kaybee]

Anything that is high-porous with a large surface area would be ideal. I'm not familar with what type of biological filtration media is available at those two places, though.

[Davered00ss]

Just bought the Fluval bio media. Only 1 500g package. I'll probably add the Rena stars as well next time I take the filter apart.