# Filter Question



## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

I'm not new to fish keeping, but put this question here, as it may help anyone out there who is new to the hobby as well.

I have an Aqua Clear 70 on my 36g tank, with a sponge, carbon and biomax.

As a secondary filter, I have an Aqueon 30, with biomax and the plastic "bio" thingy that it came with.... I don't know... it's got spikes and says it holds bacteria. Anyway, I run my Nitrazorb media in that filter as well. I was also using the foam/carbon combo' media that it comes with, but just noticed, that since the filter is so full now, much of the water by passes the media and just flows out the bypass area.

_My question is: *Can that filter still be considered to be a filter that's doing 100% of a good job, if I take the sponge/carbon media out and just run it on the Nitrazorb pouch, biomax and plastic bio holder it came with?* (It's rated for tanks up to 40-45g)._ I wanted to have 2 filters on that tank (more filtration is better) and I want to make sure it's doing the full job of a filter, and not just half the job. Obviously the sponge gives more surface area for bacteria... but what's the point if it's getting mostly bypassed right?


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## Big Dog (May 17, 2010)

Is the sponge on the bottom of the filter?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Holly I had one of those filters, same size. Something needs to come out of it. I would try pulling the blue spikey thingy out and leave the sponge first and see if it works.


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## Big Dog (May 17, 2010)

I have these filters and I like them alot. That is a good idea to take one thing out of the filter and see how it does.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Just get one decent canister filter and do away with all the HOB filters. My guess is the nitrazorb interferes with how both of those filters are designed to work, although it may not look like it is operating like it should. Why do you have nitrazorb in both filters btw, isn't one good enough? I would be tryng to use as little as that stuff as possible. 

Pick up a Eheim 2215 or 2217 used and you have all kinds of room for "extra" media.


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## Big Dog (May 17, 2010)

I bought a used FX5 canister filter off a person. I have it running on my 120 gallon planted aquarium and I also like this filter alot.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Oh no Ben, the Nitrazorb is only in that filter. The main filter in the tank is an Aquaclear 70 and it runs with Sponge, Carbon, Biomax. The Aqueon is the one that I added biomax and the Nitrazorb to. (Came with the sponge/carbon combo.)

I'm thinking maybe I'll see if the Nitrazorb will fit in the AC 70 media basket (they are always HUGE for tons of media!) If it fits, I'll put a new sponge/carbon combo in the Aqueon (the current one was sooooooo dirty!) and run it like that. 2 filters are better than one, and I'll just have the Nitrazorb as the top media in the AC70. (It will be: sponge on bottom, carbon in middle, biomax next, then nitrazorb on top.)


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

It works fantastically! The Aqueon 30 now has the added biomax and a new floss/carbon combo plus the plastic bio thing it came with, and is running great.

The AC 70 has a sponge, carbon, biomax and the Nitrazorb on top and is running the way it normally does! (Being at the top makes the top of the pouch puff up with air above the water line, but it stays wet since all the media and bottom of the bag are wet, so I'm not worried. Water is definitely running through the media!)


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