biomedia is expensive especially if you got multiple big canisters or even a big old sump
but is all that expensive fancy porous media really worth it
or is it all just great marketing we're about to find out let's go
what's up guys welcome back to caveman aquatics my name is kev from caveman equality.com and on this
channel i like making helpful videos on all topics of the aquarium hobby that gets straight to the
point so that you can get back to enjoying your beautiful fish so if that's something you like
in the channel then make sure you subscribe and hit that bell so you don't miss any new content
so i've been doing some research on these pot scrubbies right here and i found out that they're
a great source of surface area for your beneficial bacteria not only that but they're dirt cheap i
got this entire package for seven bucks on amazon i have a link to my amazon affiliate store in the
description below does it have as much surface area as the more expensive fancy stuff most likely
not but the real question is do we really need all that surface area your beneficial bacteria grow
on all the surfaces inside your tank they grow in your decor they grow on your plants your substrate
they grow on any and all surface areas although not all surface areas are equal but still
more than likely you have enough surface area in your tank and inside your filter to house enough
beneficial bacteria to handle the bioload in your tank and keep your tank properly cycled
but how much is enough how do we gauge how much surface area you need in your particular tank
that's a good question a question i can't really answer because every tank is different what i
can tell you is that you know that your tank is healthy and running the way it should be
as long as you keep consistent water parameters of zero ammonia zero nitrites and under 40 parts
per million of nitrates if you can hit those numbers then whatever it is that you're currently
doing whatever type of media you're using it's working now what i can do though is try my own
experiment with my own tank my own biology my water my filters and share the results with you
and you can make your own judgment call this is a 210 gallon tank with about 50 african cichlids
40 adults and about 10 juveniles i run two fx6 canister filters and i vacuum my substrate weekly
and even though i do 80 water changes weekly my nitrates reach about 40 to 80 parts per million
every week i'm giving you this info so that you know if these possibilities work in my tank
and your tank isn't as big or overstocked as my tank then it'll probably work in your tank too
but keep in mind that every tank is different this 210 is less than a year old so i wouldn't consider
it established it's relatively a young tank but that's why i want to try this now if it works well
now it's only going to work even better as the tank matures so the plan is to strip my fx6 of its
current expensive biomedia and fill it completely with these scrubbies in the hopes that my tank
remains cycled and performing as well as it's been very important side note guys normally you
would never want to change out all your biomedia in one shot like this the way that i'm doing it
reason is that doing that will most likely crash your cycle because you'll be throwing away the
majority of your beneficial bacteria in my case i can do this because i have two fx6 running
yes removing the seeded biomedia will have an impact on my tank but because i have another
seated filter running it'll be minimal the bacteria will reproduce quickly in the new
fx6 because of the bacteria that's in my other fx6 plus i've got a few tricks to use in a new
filter to help boost the bacteria production even more if you've been with me on the channel for a
while you probably already know what it is so for those of you that want to try this after i show
my results if you've only got one filter you want to change out your bio media slowly and gradually
like 25 at a time with at least two weeks in between this will give you bacteria time to
grow on your new media before you replace more of the old media alright so let's pop open my filter
and i want to show you guys what i was currently running in it and how i had it set up let's go to
so i've drained the entire canister so i can show you guys the guts here without drenching my floor
now i'll get into why i set up my cancer the way that i do later on when we're filling it back up
it's very important to understand how to load this canister but more importantly is the why
understanding why you do something to your tank will always make you a better fish keeper
it's a caveman quote right there okay guys i drained the entire filter
that way i can show you guys the guts
so my first tray is all mechanical i got a blue
pad here for polishing doesn't look all that bad check it out
then i've got the fine polishing pad that is totally destroyed look at that
this is why you got to change these pads out monthly it's been about a month
so that's why it's a good time to do this anyway
then i've got my chemical media i'll get into this later but this has also been over a month
time to change it anyway next i got these fluval ceramic rings mixed in with some bio home ultimate
very expensive media guys as you can see though the media is pretty clean there's no poop and
no muck on this media which means that the top tray of mechanical was doing its job
let's see what's under here more of the same guys ceramic rims
and bio home ultimate ceramic rings aren't that expensive but the biohole multimeter is
and in the last tray another tray full of bio home ultimate
you can see this thing wasn't drained all the way glad i had my towel more about home ultimate
that's a lot of bio home that's a lot of money we're going to get rid of all of this bio media
and i'm going to replace everything with the sponges and then put it back together so i'll
be back when i got rid of all this stuff as quick as bam just like that i know my audio is going to
sound a little bit different because the camera's a little more farther away but i wanted to give
you guys a nice spread of what we're about to do right here so first let's talk about how
water travels inside your fxx canister the fx6 is a little special it's kind of different than
other canisters water is going to enter your canister and go straight down to the bottom
from the bottom of the canister is going to go up the sides which are filled with these core sponges
that go on the sides of your trays it's going to go up the sides and when it gets to the top
then it's going to overflow into the center through the center pads right here these center
trays water is going to go down the center so you need to know that to understand the order of
your media inside the fx6 since water is going to overflow into the top tray and go down the center
then your top tray starts with your mechanical media then biomedia then chemical on your way down
now with that being said most of us know the general order of media in your filter like i
said it goes mechanical then bio then chemical but with the fx6 and the way that it's designed we're
going to do it a little bit differently just to be a little strategic i got this idea from a great
buddy of mine over in the facebook group his name is jeff thompson thank you jeff and if you're not
in the facebook group i don't know what you're waiting for go over there facebook.com groups
slash caveman aquatics and you'll get great tips like i'm about to show you right now the
strategy is that we're going to go mechanical then chemical and finally biomedia the reason
for this is kind of simple the fx6 can go months and months and months without needing a cleaning
but your chemical media does need replacement after about a month like you saw earlier my
chemical media was destroyed so it's much simpler to have the chemical media in your top tray
so that every month you can pop open the top take out your used up chemical media and then throw in
some new chemical media put the top back on and the whole canister goes right back onto
your tank without having to disturb every all the other traits this change isn't going to make much
of a difference anyway the water is still going to be very clean before hitting your bottom two
trays which is going to consist of your bio media guys are you enjoying this video are you finding
some value then do me a favor hit that like button right now it's gonna help the video grow
spread to more people that it could help just like you i appreciate you so let's start from the
beginning the first thing that water needs to hit is a coarse sponge to grab the big pieces of poop
and detritus and trap it into the sponge so it doesn't continue through your filter and back out
to your tank that happens with these big coarse pads that go around the sides of your baskets
there you go as water travels up the sides these will be stacked right
so as water travels up the sides it's going to go through each layer of these coarse sponges
and then overflow into the center so we've got the first part of our mechanical filtration done
with these big core sponges after your first level of core sponge you want water to go through either
a medium or a fine pad what we're going to use in this case are these fluval pads one is a fluval
max clean pad it's like a bluish pad and the other one is called quick clear this is the fine pad
that is very similar to polyfill the benefit of this over polyfill is that this won't break up
and separate into your canister another good tip from my facebook group i put these in the
fx6 during my last cleaning a few months ago and it's been working great so i've been using
these in the fx6 so now let's work with the top trade we're going to start with the bottom of
the top tray so it's kind of like we're going to reverse right so in the bottom of the top tray
is where you want your chemical media what i'm using as usual chemi pure blue i'm gonna use
two of these 11 ounce bottles which they filter 75 gallons each so a total of 150
gallons of chemi pure in this one canister and i've got two more bottles in my other canister
for a total of 300 gallons worth of chemi pure blue in a 210 gallon tank my other form
of chemical media is always going to be purigen this one bag of purigen will filter 100 gallons
so i've got one in this canister and another bag in the other canister for a total of 200 gallons
my chemical media is straight and if you wonder how i get this crystal clear water in my tank the
chemical media has a big role in it so i'm gonna head over to my sink and i'm going to rinse these
out properly especially the chemi pure blue this thing will run will rinse black water
you got to make sure it's rinsed well before you put it into your canister if not all that black
dust is going to go right into your tank so i'll be right back i'm back okay guys so here we go
got the two bags of chemi pure blue nice and rinsed out they're gonna go right in the bottom
and my rinsed out bag of pure gin right in the bottom check it out
now above this is going to go first your polishing pad
here's my last one in the box now guys let me remind you
these boxes the reason why i rather use these
this box is like three bucks and this one is like five bucks or vice versa or something like that
it's very cheap and they do a great job so i'll go with these this is a fine filter pad right here
this is the one that you saw earlier was totally destroyed this definitely needs to be replaced
at least monthly this is going to go right on top of your chemical media and then the blue pad this
one can actually be rinsed and reused you don't need to replace it every month which is what i did
here's my old pad guys as you can see still looks brand new nice and clean
all i did was rinse it out and i'm going to reuse this one this one goes the top layer
so real quick let's recap guys this is your top tray water is going to go up to size through your
core sponges and then overflow into the middle this blue pad will call that the medium sponge
and then underneath the medium sponge is the white fine pad now you got fine filtration
and then water is going to hit your chemical media this way a month later from now when you
pop the top on your canister you can easily go right into this top tray and replace all of this
fine stuff that will probably be mucked up in a month with new stuff pop the top back on and
you're good to go now in these bottom two trays is where we're going to put our new bio media
and these shouldn't be touched or messed with for a few months at least depending on your tank but
the fx6 is capable of going months without doing an entire cleaning and messing with your bacteria
i hope one pack is enough because i only got one pack
let's see maybe i can stand this up get more space i think one and a half of these will
fill this tray the other one and a half will fill this tray should be good to go
a little less than one and a half actually now you know what i'll put these two in there too
so i fit ten in the basket standing up two more on top call that one and
a half of these bags and the other one and a half will go into the bottom tray
there you go got one package fill the two bottom trays nice and packed
let's get this put back together
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link will be in the description now i could just throw this right back onto the tank and
let the tank fill up the canister but then i have to fill up the tank so what we're gonna
do instead is i'm gonna fill up this canister with water i'm going to add some prime to it
to dechlorinate that water and then i'm going to add stability directly into the canister to
help boost the beneficial bacteria production and growth inside this canister how much stability am
i going to add well i'm gonna dose the entire amount for a 210 gallon right here into this
canister and the way i like to do it guys is through this tube right here this is the tube
where water enters and goes straight to the bottom of your canister you don't really have to do that
it's just kind of a superstitious thing for me i'd rather put it right in here and know that
the product is getting completely cycled inside the canister before it goes out back to your tank
so here we go
it's okay to have some spillage
there you go three of these 25 milliliter cups enough for a 210 gallon
and i'm not gonna forget my prime to the chlorinate the water that's about to go in here
all you need is one cap full of that for this canister
also down the tube all right let's go fill this baby up i want to give one more big thank you to
jeff thompson over in my facebook group if it wasn't for jeff i would never try these
fluval pads which i'm now using inside the top tray of my fx6 along with my chemical media my
chemi pure blue and my purigen makes total sense why they should go in the top tray of the fx6
and if it wasn't for jeff and his genius i would have never thought of it so thank you jeff and
if you're not in my facebook group yet here's the link right here make sure you
go check it out and you'll get cool tips and suggestions just like these
all right guys we're all filled up got the top back on i'm going to connect this back
to the tank but a lot of people ask me the same question so i'm going to go over real quick how
you want to open your valves when you connect your fx6 back to your tank let's get it in first
okay guys so the order that you connect your valves doesn't really matter
what matters is the order that you open your valves now before plugging your canister in
after you got your valves connected what you want to do is open the inlet valve first
this is going to release the water that you had trapped in this hose it's going to push the water
now into the canister but now it's trapped inside the canister so to get it out of the
canister now we're going to open the out valve and listen to the sound that the canister makes
you hear that that's water from your tank filling up your canister even though
i filled it up there's no way i can fill it all the way to the top completely full
so by doing it this way now your tank is completely full and sealed and primed and
now it's ready to be plugged in now is when you plug it in and your canister will work like magic
all right now that we've got that done don't run out and just go change your body media
now for some cheap pot scrubbies don't do that yet like i said in the beginning of the video
i've read and researched a lot about these scrubbies and i've heard good stories
but like anything in this hobby you don't know anything until you try it and confirm it yourself
so i'm gonna run this experiment it's gonna take a while probably about maybe two months
until we get an update on this i'm gonna wait about a month for this canister to get seeded
with beneficial bacteria and then a month later i'm gonna do the same thing to my second fx6
wait about a month so in a total of about two months we'll see an updated video on how my
tank is doing with these pop scrubbies and only pot squirrel visas bio media in both my
fx sixes so if you want to see that video make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don't
miss it until then watch one of these videos up here youtube and i think that you'll like them
peace