chipmaker Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 I just have a 2 gal pico, and a small nano hob, that uses a sponge type pad approximately 3/8" thick and a white fiber pad approximately 1" thick. I have read filter pads are not good in a marine setup, but I do not have any real bio load since it has no shrimp or fish etc, just a single snail and a brittle starfish......But I split the white filter pad down to approx 1/4 or so in thickness, and removed the black sponge pad. The first 3 days I ran both pads, then removed the white pad entirely, and now reduced the thickness of white pad and reinstalled it as i noticed it picked up more stuff from the water than the black sponge did, plus I added LR rubble in the small chamber. The rubble I added is very very porus, and cured.....So for what little (if any) bio load from snail and starfish is in this tank, will I be better off with the rubble and white pad as is in there now, or remove the rubble and go back to the black sponge and white filter pad........I have been under the pretense the more LR you have the better off it is, and every little bit helps.......so I just followed what others have done in making a fuge in their hob, only on a micro scale......feasible or not.......Clue me in please. Thanks Link to comment
LukeP77 Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 I would toss the media out and replace with live rock. Then maybe for a few days a month put the charcole media back in to polish the water a bit. with that small of a system you could probably even go with just water changes and not worry about the filter media at all. Just my 2 cents. Link to comment
doncb Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 My pico is a 2.5g Mini-bow w/ a AC 30 HOB. I have some LR in the filter w/ 1/4 bag of ChemiClean on it w/ a small bit of floss as a return filter. Change a quart of water 2 times a week and the tank is doing well. Maybe there isn't enough LR in the HOB to have a big effect but every bit helps. My thread is HERE. Link to comment
robmacy Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 run LR filtering and include some macro algae. we run carbon for 1-2 hours only once a week. Link to comment
chipmaker Posted August 12, 2005 Author Share Posted August 12, 2005 Well its been up now for a bit over 3 weeks and so far water looks good. I added 2 baffles with slots in the hob so the live rock I have in there does not interfere with removing the filter media. I take the white colored filter pad which is about " thick and pull it apart so its 1/2" thick and use it for the filter media, and so far it seems to be sufficient at removing any junk. I don;t know if the small amount of LR in the hob is making much of a difference, but its starting to grow coraline algae on it, and since it wa a few little pieces I had left from the PICO setup and at the cost of LR I just did not want to throw it away. The entire hob is only a cube of approximately 4" with 1/2 of that area taken up by the intake tube and chamber, so that left me with a space of approx 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 4" to have for LR and a space 3/4" x 1 1/2" x 4" for the filter media chamber....not much room. I also slotted the HOB's top cover so I coould put the cover back on it as I have my submersible temp probe down inside the hob as well....So far so good, but now I got a larger SW setup to fool with, that I was given for a present on my 25th wedding anniversary by my wife, but this pico is still my favorite thing to fool with. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.