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Biomaster 350 Sponges?

Joined
17 Mar 2012
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2,003
Location
Dorset
My Biomaster 350 came with 3 blue coarse sponges and 1 orange fine sponge. I don’t use the orange one as it seemed to be in the wrong place (it’s thinner and intended to go in the top tray) and I use carbon in a bag in there anyway. I taken out one of the blue sponges and use that tray for biomedia. I’ve been wondering though about putting 2 orange sponges in place of one of the blue ones though. Anyone done this? Thinking about how it may effect the flow.
 
I like Juwel biomaster filters, easy to manage and swap media out etc, plus the powerhead creates really decent flow. I've just set up a Rio 180 for my son, and for convenience added the media that came with it. But I think when it's time for a change I'll probably just use coarse sponges. Better for flow through and filter oxygenation. But I guess it won't do any harm for you to experiment and come to a media arrangement you feel happiest with.
 
Every tank is different, when I had a tank full of African cichilds with just sand and rocks I relied heavily on biomedia in the filter. I now have a Dutch style tank with active substrate and stock oase sponges are a bit of an overkill...what I learned is that "flow is king for planted tanks" and "flow is king squared for co2 injected planted tanks", as a person that unnecessarily spent money on fancy biomedia I can say any flow for biomedia trade off you make is not worth it.
 
I have a 350 litre heavily planted tank running 2 x Biomaster 350s with 2 middle trays of Biohome in each filter. Just replaced the Biohome in one filter for pot scrubbers to increase the flow. Will wait a month and then swap the other over too.
I am doing this to increase the flow, which has certainly increased in the pot scrubber filter.
The sponges that came with the Biomasters may affect the flow but I wouldn't think by much... my water is clear with no polishing floss.
 
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