Tidal HOB media???

[docshipwreck]

Hello friends! Long time lurker and I haven’t posted in a while. Hope you all are well and as always thanks for your read/input.

 

I recently switched to tidal from an ac. I adored my intank media basket. I like the tidal a little bit better for some of its other features. I’m finding tons of detritus getting trapped in the blue sponge part as well as the nylon bag the media comes in. I was wondering what has everyone else done? Ditched the media and put floss on the bottom in place of the blue sponge? I feel like the only positive to the ax was routing the water through the floss. 
 

how is everyone stacking their media? I typically run floss and chemipure blue. I want to take out the matrix media and see how it goes. 
 

any thoughts? 
 

thanks!

[mcarroll]

A pic would be helpful for folks who still haven't seen one in person....you still might get some 👍

[docshipwreck]

Here's a stock photo. The blue sponge is like a plastic-y material. I wash/rinse but would rather just use filter pad or floss to be able to toss it. The zip bag the matrix media was in just seemed to get gunked up as well. Perhaps not rinsing as frequently as I should. This is were the blue and white filter pad was awesome in my intank basked for the aqua clear. 

 

I replaced the blue sponge in the picture with blue and white filter pad and removed the matrix and threw some chemipure blue nano packs in there. 

 

I really enjoy the filter, it has built in surface skimming, and you can adjust the intake from the top skim part or the deeper tube. The pump is always wet so no more questions if you have a power issue of the pump and flow coming back. 

[mcarroll]

Do you run the filter while you feed?  Seems a little strange for the whole works to get as "gunked up" as you're describing.

 

Are you primarily using the filter to eliminate "surface scum" or is it there for something else?

 

If you don't want to turn the filter off during feeding (which is fine – it probably creates excellent flow), then consider using NO mechanical filtration.  Ie. no sponge, no pad, et al.

 

Using no mechanical filtration will allow food to continue to circulate through your reef until it gets eaten by fish or coral.  (Same goes for fish waste...it is one of the most-ideal coral foods.)

 

The Matrix was in there for bio-filtration, which should be totally optional on a reef....personally, I'd just leave that out.

 

Continue dialing in your feeding style so the fish eat as close to 100% of what you put in, every time – ideally, the filter should get 0% of the food you put in.   Accomplishing this usually translates to more feedings that are much smaller per-feeding.

 

Is the tank in your avatar photo the tank we're talking about?  

[docshipwreck]

On 11/8/2023 at 10:34 AM, mcarroll said:

Do you run the filter while you feed?  Seems a little strange for the whole works to get as "gunked up" as you're describing.

 

Are you primarily using the filter to eliminate "surface scum" or is it there for something else?

 

If you don't want to turn the filter off during feeding (which is fine – it probably creates excellent flow), then consider using NO mechanical filtration.  Ie. no sponge, no pad, et al.

 

Using no mechanical filtration will allow food to continue to circulate through your reef until it gets eaten by fish or coral.  (Same goes for fish waste...it is one of the most-ideal coral foods.)

 

The Matrix was in there for bio-filtration, which should be totally optional on a reef....personally, I'd just leave that out.

 

Continue dialing in your feeding style so the fish eat as close to 100% of what you put in, every time – ideally, the filter should get 0% of the food you put in.   Accomplishing this usually translates to more feedings that are much smaller per-feeding.

 

Is the tank in your avatar photo the tank we're talking about?  

Thanks for the reply! My avatar is an old tank, I’ve since upgraded to a 30 cube. I decided on this tank to try my hand at the black Arag sand, a little coarser grain than I’d like. I think that traps more than my husbandry keeps up with. Thanks I may cut back on feeding some and try to dial that in.