Mid posted.
LM wrote:
Hi all,

I've decided to replace my HOT Magnum filter with Fluval 304 canister
filter... HOT Magnum has worked great, but I'm moving the fish tank to
a new location in the house (fun fun fun) and the new configuration is
not going to be HOT-access-friendly..

My tank has UGF as well as the Magnum..and on the magnum I have
stuffed the media mesh cylinder with marineland blue bonded filter and
surrounded by the blue thin sponge sleeve to trap the large particles,
and it has done great. UGF has been the main supplier of biological
filtration, and the Magnum being more of the particle filteration (the
gravel used for UGF is quite coarse, so it doesn't do whole lot of
good job in entraping finer particles). and every now and then (every
6mo or so? usually I only do this when I notice a reduction in flow
rate), I just open up the Magnum, dump all the dirty filter, fill it
with new ones and put it back. No cloudiness even with this kind of
overhaul since UGF supplies bio filter.

Fluval will be replacing the magnum. UGF will be kept running (fish I
have seem to like high current.. well, with an exception of the
gouramis, but.. majority wins)

At any rate, Fluval 304 has three media baskets. I'm thinking about
filling the top two with the BioMAX biological filter media, and would
like to fill the bottom-most media basket with some sort of physical
filter to further aid the filteration done by the sponge blocks. Or
should I fill just the top basket with the BioMAX, and fill the bottom
two with some physical filter media? I don't need carbon, peat, nor
ammochip (water is naturally soft, fully cycled, and I fertilize
plants, so I don't want carbon in there filtering out my fertilizer)

Seems like Hagen has ceramic ring-style large particle filter (Fluval
pre-filter material). would this be better than filling the basket
with floss-type media like the ones I have been using for my Magnum?
if i decide to use the pre-filter material and the floss-type
material, which one should be on the bottom?

The floss type material should be above the rings. All of what you said
previously sounds good to me.


how much does each basket hold? would one box of these media sold by
Hagen enough to fill one basket, or do I need to buy more?

also, are there any spare parts I really ought to buy at the same
time?

If you ever need any type of filter adapters you could buy an ati filter max
3 sponge prefilter even if just for the adapters it comes with (the sponge
prefilter) so you should definitely be able to connect the fluval msf 304 to
the undergravel filter. You have a good filter setup and seem to have good
plans - I would continue with what works for you for sure - undergravel
filters have a lot of biofiltration capacity and work great even if not the
best, you don't need the best as your ugf/fluval msf filtration just plain
does the job for you. Good luck and later!


any suggestions, comments?

37G heavily planted tank.

Linda