I am upgrading my tank.

What Kind of Filter media should I use in this setup?

Here are the relevant stats

55 Gallon tank

3 fancy goldfish, currently none larger than 3 inches, but I want to prepare the tank for quite a bit of growing room. I would rather not have to worry about upgrading again for a long long time, if ever.

1 Emperor 400 Bio-Wheel

1 Rena Filstar XP3

I want to eventually get a UV Sterilizer but this will have to wait due to financial reasons

I want this eventually to be a planted tank, but this will also have to wait due to financial reasons + I will be moving a long distance relatively soon and moving the fish is going to be hard enough without also having to worry about plants.

What Kind of Filter media should I use in this setup?

Thanx

Rayston

I would use the standard media with the Emperor and the Rena. When the filter media starts to get clogged, just swish it out in a bucket of tank water. That way you're able to keep the benificial bacteria that grow on the media and you save money reusing the same cartridges. The cartridges, at least on the Emperor, can last a couple of months when doing this. You can also put extra biomedia (ceramic cylinders, lava rock, etc.) in the baskets on the emperor.

The gray clamshell holder in the 400 will hold a fair amount of bio0-media for you. I have a lot of ceramic cylindars left over from other uses, and, carefully lined up in little rows in that clamshell, you can pack in a whole bunch of it. This will pretty much stuff the 400 to the max. I generally tend to knock out the carbon from the blue floss filters after about 2 weeks - slitting the bottom of the floss and banging the carbon out into the garbage. Then you can use that blue filter cartridge for months - until it falls apart. With the filters you have, you should be able to build a good enough bio-filter that you have no need to try to preserve anything on the blue floss. You will be able to blast it clean in the sink as I do. This extends the life of the cartridge and really really cleans it - to almost new!

The REna is a nice filter. It has several baskets for biological media. Since it flows from the bottom up, you want to set it up so that the large waste is sorted out first. In the Rena, they have large pored foam pieces (20 guage if I remember correctly) that go first - on the bottom. Next, you put in the finer pored foam (30 gauge) to polish the water. In the XP3, I think there is room for multiple small guage stages -to really polish the fine particles from the water.

The rest of the filter has room for biological media. Do not put an zeolite or ammo chips in the filter. This will mess with your cycle. I do not bother with carbon, unless I am specifically trying to remove chemicals/meds from the water. It fills so quickly, is a mediocre biological platform, and takes up the room more efficient platform could use. Use the water polishing pads to remove gross and fine waste, and the good biological substrates to hold your beneficial bacteria and your filters should work very nicely.

400gph + 350 gph is a fine turnover for your tank - and even with the inevitable slowdown of gph, you should be able to support fine large fish in there! You will also be glad of the extra filtration when you have a planted tank - for plants and fish can be a messy combination.

Ceramic cylindars, or sintered glass are my favorite biological medias. I really like the Ehiem media best - it holds soooo much. Whenever I change tanks or uses or whatever, it can be boiled out and used forever.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/produc...2579&pcid1=1965

I like the ceramic rings that is sold for this purpose, too. They are second only to the above product. This above product will go nicely in the clamshell of the 400 also.

I have mamged to build such strong cycles in my filters and tanks, that even mnay medications and additives that generally kill or stunt cycles do not even affect them.

Have fun and enjoy those fish. And once you move, post up pictures of that gorgeous planted tank!

You should probably use the filter media made for these filters. Although UV sterelizers are great in saltwater tanks, they really don't help freshwater tanks. They aren't nessecary, and I wouldn't buy one because of their price, as well as the fact that they need the bulb changed often, which can eventually get expensive. I would use the money to buy some ich medication and aquarium salt, just in case, and you still may have some money left over if you ever needed replacement parts for your filters.

I have an emperor 400 and I put ceramic rings in it and love them they grow soooo much good bacteria and if ever you need to disasemble your tank you can just pop them in some boiling water and viola! good as new!