Currently I have 2 Emp 400s and a Cascade 700 on my 125. I know that the cascade isnt the best canister filter out there and thats its under powered for the tank, but its what I have for now.

My question is, what do you all think is best to stuff the 2 trays with? The tank houses 3 big Oscars, a large JD, a mid sized Catfish, a mid size Lepornis, and a large Clawed Frog.
Any advice would be appreciated. I have a white corse sponge, the carbon bag, the blue filter pad and white that came with it. I also have some Bio Stars, Ammo-Chips, and small peat gravel available if you think a combo of these will work that would be great, but Im open, so please let the suggestions fly. Thanks for your help! Ed. (PS) if you have suggestions for the Emps that would be great as well.

You are looking for 2 main things out of your filters. The first is mechanical filtration and the second is biological filtration. They both can be achieved in several ways. In your case I would say for the canister you can get your mechanical filtration from the filter pad. The pad will give you bio filtration also. The next thing you should look for is surface area for the bio filter. In your case I would say either the course sponge or the bio-stars would be your best bet and these should be located after your mechanical filter in the canister.

For the 400's you can use the filter cartridge for your mechanical filtration and the bio-wheel will give you the bio filtration.

The 3rd thing you can get from your filter is the ability to remove chemicals from your water. This is achieved with the carbon. The carbon is usually not required unless you are trying to remove meds or color from tannins etc...from your tank. In other words you probably won't need the carbon. In fact on the 400's I usual cut a slit in the bottom of the filter cartridge and remove the carbon when I set mine up. I do this for 1 because it isn't usually required and 2 because once in the tank it is only effective for a short period of time.

Did your emps come with the gray plastic holding cartridges? I have a whole bunch of zeolite I got somewhere, and I put that inside, then I stuff the cartridge into one of the tetra pro-tec XL filter sleeve. (they got green on one side and white on the other I think they're called pro-tech anyhow.)

Behind that, I use big open celled foam from a pond filter for mechanical filtration. It seems to work pretty good, I keep two 400s like that running on a 75 that I use for quarantine and haven't had any trouble with them.

So it goes, in to the coarse pond filter, through the medium side of the tetra one, (I forget without looking if that's the green or the white side, I think it's green) through the zeolite, and then finally out the fine side on the tetra pad.

The grey cart with the tetra pad requires a little cramming to get it in there all the way but it does fit, just very snugly.

Thanks for the info dirtydawg. I was thinking the same, use the 700 for mostly bio filtration & the 400s to carry most of the mechanical load. Im thinking about using a pre filter on the 700. Do you see any problem with me putting one one it?

Thats a good idea saint felon. I had'nt thought about putting the cartridges into filter sleaves. I will be now! My LFS carries large pond fliter pads that I can cut to size. Thanks for your help.

I've been enjoying fish keeping for many years but with the exception of a 3 month period this is the largest tank I've had. I bought one and had it just about 3 months when the glass on the the end got a big crack in it. I moved all the fish to the 55 untill I got this one. The Emps and 700 came with it. All in all not a bad deal. The tank, stand, lights, emps, cascade and a box of misc. stuff all $200.00 off of craigs list. The old 125 is now a lizard display aquarium at my LFS.

Sponges are your friend...Good advise already! Sponges are not only cheap but a great bio filter and pretty good mechanical. Not to mention sponges are easy to clean and last almost forever.

Thanks for responding Mostlycichlids. Do you think the sponge would be better than the bio stars?

In my opinion yes and the reason I say this is because with any ceramic media or similar media over time it will clog with dead bacteria cultures. Sponges are easy to clean and rarely ever clog permanently. The only filters I have ceramic media in is a couple of my canisters and it is a pain to clean every other week. By the time I clean it in tank water it is dirty again from the stuff that fell off of it in the bucket. The other plus to sponges is they are cheaper, a lot cheaper. By the way I like your signature!

With one exception I totally agree on the ceramic end of things. I have some Laguna brand pond size ceramic media and they're gigantic. I can fit them on my finger size, and since they're so large they're super easy to clean off.

I'm not sure if it would work in the cascade, but I've had good luck with lava rock as a bio media. I started using it primarily to weigh down the internal pond filters I use with the sliders, and found that it works really well for that too.

I've only ever used the Walmart brand meant for use in grills which is fairly large chunks, and fairly large bags, so I'm not sure what you'd get from an actual fish brand.

Yes, a prefilter on the canister would be a good idea.

Can I use sponges from Lowes for filter midia?

GOLDEN HARVEST ALL PURPOSE SPONGE

SIGNATURE SMALL SEA SPONGE

At a couple of bucks for either, its a good price compaired to the filter sponges at the pet store + Lowes is only 10 minutes away, the nearest pet store (Petco) that I can get the filter sponges from is 90 minutes away. So I thought I would get your opinions before making what normaly turns into a 5-6 hour trip to the city. My wife loves to go to all the craft stores in the area when we go so it takes a while. Normally I wouldnt mind (I like to browse around and check out the fish and equip) but I am hoping to get all my honey-dos, and tank maintenance done after work Saturday so I can join the chat on here in the pm, plus help coach the Cards & Steelers to victory on Sunday after church. Contrary to what my wife says, I know they can hear me when I yell too or at them through the TV.

You have to be careful buying sponges that are not intended for aquariums. Sometimes they are coated with anti-fungal agents, soaps, etc...which would not be good for your fish. If you can confirm that the sponge doesn't contain any of these things it would be fine. If it was me I would spend the extra to get one intended for use in aquariums.

Quote :

Contrary to what my wife says, I know they can hear me when I yell too or at them through the TV.

You are correct about this by the way...they can hear you. My wife doesn't believe me either...

Thanks for the info dirtydawg. I will boil it if I do get one.

I would go with something more along the lines of a foam type sponge. I say this because water will flow through much easier and waster will be able to cleaned out much easier. http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/product/categoryInfoL3.web?options.passInCategoryKey=22872

They may not have them yet, but my lowes carries air conditioning filters starting in spring (or somewhere around when they start getting seeds in) they are for all intents and purposes the same large open celled foam that is used in pond liners, it just comes in big bricks, or if your're lucky you'll find it in an bigish sheet. You'll need to cut them down to size but they work just fine.

You could just order some online too and have it shipped right to your house.

Thanks for all the help. I ended up with large pond filter pads. I got the 2 pack, 1 course (black) and 1 for removing finer particals (blue) I ended up with 8 (4 of each) after I cut them down, plus a couple of prefilters for the 700. All for $9.oo bucks. I also picked up a bag of Lava Rock for the to tray in the 700 for extra Bio housing.

Im heading to Petco next Saturday to get the bio bags to put the Emp 400 cartridges in, and some zeolite. (and a few plants)

Again thank you all for your time and concern. It really is nice to have some other freshwater hobbiest to chat with.

Cool! Glad you found the answers you were looking for.

We are here to help and eager....we are a small forum but we have some very experienced keepers here!