4 stage filter setup

[azzakat]

Hi ppls
I recently bought a 4 stage filter and was wondering in what way should i set it up ie. sponge, wool, bio balls then carbon (water coming through the sponge first).
nothing in the instructions on this.

Its a saecem marathon 1000 by the way

[goldenpigeon]

ok, bio balls are more efficient in a sump situation (wet and dry).

you would probably want to go:

Stage 1: Sponge, wool, carbon (dont use carbon on a discus tank) etc.

Stage : mix between chemical, biological and mechanical filtration according to your likes. so maybe for for a top layer of sponge then some seachem matrix and bio zorb or something.

or you could just use plain sponge, or plain bio filtration.

Stage 3 + 4: you should use bio filtration for both of these stages as the water should be free of particles by now.

some good media brands to use are seachem, ehiem and JBL

HTH

cheers
David

[azzakat]

OK maybe there not called bio balls. they are a white tube thingy (lots of them) and why not carbon on a discus tank.

At the moment its setup as follows

sponge, wool, white tube thingy's and carbon

[goldenpigeon]

the white tube things are ceramic rings, they are great media.

some people believe that carbon affects the discus slime coats, i myself cant back that up as i dont use carbon but just to be on the safe side.