HELP!!! what order of media in my external Filter

[magsam43]

Hi all, I have an AQUA ONE CF1000 and a FULVAL 305 and being new to these external filters I am a little unsure what way round the ceramics, carbons and sponges (both corbon and ordinary sponges) goes which way round.

My fluval 305 has 3 trays: sponges at the side, then bottom tray has ceramics in, middle tray has a bag of carbon and bioball in the other side, and top tray has 2 clean water bags in.

My Aqua One CF1000 has 2 trays: I have no idea how they go. when I bought it, it had ceramics and bioball mixed in the bottom of the canister (not in a tray) then bottom tray had more bioball and carbon sponge on top, then top tray had bag of carbon with white sponge ontop then grid then top of canister. Really not sure how this exernal filter should be done, dont look right so any advice would be welcome,

I can seem to get any advice from the website (aqua one) just says media of your choice. huh.

[ILLUSN]

FLUVAL ceramic rings in lowest basket, next 2 baskets what every you like, i like a nice porus substrate like matrix, eheim substrate pro, etc etc, carbon is a waste of time. in the top basket i put a bit of filter wool at the bottom below the media, seems to be enough to catch all the muck.

Aquaone ceramic rings and bioballs down the botom (no basket), top 2 baskets bio media as above, bio balls in canisters are reasonably useless, they just dont have the surface area, they work great in sumps and trickles where you can use a couple of 100 liters of them.
white sponge goes on the top, throw the carbon sponge away its useless.

[magsam43]

Thanks ILLUSN for the info, I now have an idea on how to place my media. again thanks

[swampy1972]

Sorry for the hijack but on the same topic.

I just purchased a 2nd hand Eheim 2080 Pro III. It doesn't have media coming with it and I'm not too keen to spend $230 to buy the Eheim brand media kit.
I was thinking of buying the Eheim foam pad kit (about $35) but was wondering, like magsam43, what to put in the baskets, or is the Eheim media worth the big $$$.?
I was thinking about a combo and ceramic noodles, porous clay beads and Seachem matrix.
Your thoughts?

Thanks. ;)

[ILLUSN]

eheim 2080 kit is FANTASTIC value for money 4L of ceramic noodles, +8L of eheim substarte pro, to but it individually would cost you about $350 if you bought online, retail would be twice as high, + you get the pads included for free