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When I first bought my Juwel aquairum about a year ago the instructions for setting up the filter system sponges were as follows and even included an initial set of sponges (order from inlet to outlet)

Polypad
Carbon
Nitrate removal
Coarse sponge
2 x fine sponges

I have been changning the sponges as recommended.

However recently i have notice that Juwel have been producing a sponge sized box containing balls so that the bacteria has surface area to grow on

I've seen these in other filtration systems but i presumed that the fine blue sponges were doing that job in the Juwels instead.

I have space for one of these in my sponge baskets but is it worth adding or maybe even replacing a blue sponge for?  Obviously the more living space for bacteria the better but is it worth putting money up for this, will the quality of the water increase at all when the blue sponges already do that work?

If it's worth adding where in the chain of sponges should it sit??

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

The sponge will work almost as well as the bio balls . Unless your are seeing any detectable levels of ammonia or nitrite, I would not change. 
If you did change the best place for bio balls would be in the last stage as you want to keep them as clean as possible.  When you clean the blue sponge that is used for bio filtration, clean it in some old tank water, shake it out good in the tank water and remove as much debris as possible then put it back. You want to clean it in tank water so that you do not kill the bacteria on the sponge.

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