# Calling All Rena XP4 Filter Users -- I need help!!



## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

I have searched this forum but just can't find my answer so I thought I'd ask it here and hope for some help.

I have a Rena XP4 canister filter. It's my first cansiter that allows me to customise my media so I need to know the best way to set up the media. I have a 55 gallon tank with 4 yellow labs right now but I plan to expand my fish list to include 8 yellow labs, 8 cobalt blues, and 3 or 4 small catfish.

The XP4 has 4 baskets. Right now I have three baskets filled and its filled with the stuff that comes with the filter when you buy it. My water perimeters are fine but once I have a heavier stocked tank I know I will need to change my current media set up. I would like to hear how you guys set up your media in your XP4 filters.

I know that the very bottom basket should be the mechanical filtration such as Foam 20ppi and 
Foam 30ppi. I need help with the other 3 baskets and I need to know the proper order to layer the media.

Thanks a bunch!


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

I just got an XP4 about a month ago. I'm running it right now with just the media that came with it, except the carbon, which means it's kind of empty. :lol:

Soon I'll give it a cleaning and load it up properly. My plan is to focus on mechanical filtration at the bottom Going from coarse to finer, and put bio-balls in the shelves just below the final polishing pad. As stocking increases, you really want to be sure plenty of bacteria are in the filter to convert ammonia ultimately to nitrate.

-Ryan


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

Yeah..I have heard of people using gravel and broken flower pots in their filter for biological filtration media. I have never tried that. I was hoping to get some good set up advice on here for my xp4 filter before it's time to change/clean/renew the media. I need to know what to buy.


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## rrcoolj (Apr 8, 2008)

Well I don't have an xp4 but I have an xp2. Basically I got rid of the carbon, no real use for it. I baught bio balls that were made for eheim filters I think and put them in one basket(they were cheaper and there were more of them). And I left the meachnical filteration in there. I just got a ac 110 aquaclear which moves mouch more water so I think I will fill that with all mechanical media and fill the xp2 with all biological media. But you can use all sorts of stff for bilogical filteration as mentioned above. But i like bio balls plus they don't cost too much.


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## acquario (Feb 7, 2007)

Susie I have 2 XP3 in my 125 Malawi tank and I ended up not using the carbon stuff instead I bought ceramic rings for my 3rd basket, I bought them at Fintastic (I see you are from CLT too) and I'm very happy with them



CutieSusieQ said:


> I have searched this forum but just can't find my answer so I thought I'd ask it here and hope for some help.
> 
> I have a Rena XP4 canister filter. It's my first cansiter that allows me to customise my media so I need to know the best way to set up the media. I have a 55 gallon tank with 4 yellow labs right now but I plan to expand my fish list to include 8 yellow labs, 8 cobalt blues, and 3 or 4 small catfish.
> 
> ...


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

acquario said:


> Susie I have 2 XP3 in my 125 Malawi tank and I ended up not using the carbon stuff instead I bought ceramic rings for my 3rd basket, I bought them at Fintastic (I see you are from CLT too) and I'm very happy with them


Actually I don't live in Charlotte. I am about 45 mins away from it. I have been to that store before though.


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

Also, while we are talking about the xp4. I want to know if anyone has painted the intake tube on the filter (the part that sits in the water and sucks water into the canister). I really prefer it to be black but it's a bluish green and I don't like it. My background is black. Curious if there is a safe way to paint it???


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## csnake (Feb 22, 2009)

Don't paint it, just buy one of the rena smart heaters! You just plop your intake tube into the top of it and it heats the water as its sucked through it! It's already black and it replaces your rena intake. I've got mine in front of a black painted back and I can't even see it one bit! I love mine!


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

csnake said:


> Don't paint it, just buy one of the rena smart heaters! You just plop your intake tube into the top of it and it heats the water as its sucked through it! It's already black and it replaces your rena intake. I've got mine in front of a black painted back and I can't even see it one bit! I love mine!


Hmmmm, that might just work. However, I just bought a brand new 400w heater, lol. If I can return that heater with no issues I may just do that. Thanks.


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## kodyboy (Dec 9, 2007)

Krylon fusion paint (for plastic) works great on rena filter tubes. 
I have the following in my XP4s:
bottom to top, 1) foam pads, 2) nu-foam (polyester filter floss pad from a craft store) and siporax (sintered glass biological media), 3) more siporax, biological filter stars from rena, ceramic noodles, then 4) nu-foam and the polishing pad (which I will probably discard as it gets gunked up too fast). I also use sponge pre-filters from ATI on the intakes of my canister filters, it really cuts down on the maintenance.


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

So I decided to take the 400w heater back to the stote and see if they would let me exchange it for the Rena Smartheater..and they did! Yay!! But I had to get a 300w Smartheater because they don't make a 400w but that's ok.

Sooo, while I was there I looked for some media for my filter. They didn't have the Rena ceramic rings but they did have the Fluval Biomax Bio Ball thingys which look like ceramic rings to me, so I bought those. It says to change the bio balls every 6 months. Why? I thought the build up of bacteria is a good thing. So why are we to change them every 6 months? Just wondering.


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

kodyboy said:


> Krylon fusion paint (for plastic) works great on rena filter tubes.
> I have the following in my XP4s:
> bottom to top, 1) foam pads, 2) nu-foam (polyester filter floss pad from a craft store) and siporax (sintered glass biological media), 3) more siporax, biological filter stars from rena, ceramic noodles, then 4) nu-foam and the polishing pad (which I will probably discard as it gets gunked up too fast). I also use sponge pre-filters from ATI on the intakes of my canister filters, it really cuts down on the maintenance.


I will have to check out some of this media. Thanks so much. Learning how people layer their media is kinda the information I am really looking for.


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## kodyboy (Dec 9, 2007)

The 300 watt heater will be more than sufficient for a 55. 
I do not change out my biological media every six months. I can not ever remember replacing it entirely. I rinse it out the media with tank water every now and then to clear gunk out of it, but that is the only maintenace that I do for it. 
The fluval media should work fine.


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## brycerb (Dec 23, 2007)

On mine I run: 
Bottom- coarse sponges under the fine sponges 
next-quilt batting(filter floss) 
next-bio balls 
top-bags of purigen


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

brycerb said:


> On mine I run:
> Bottom- coarse sponges under the fine sponges
> next-quilt batting(filter floss)
> next-bio balls
> top-bags of purigen


Ok thank you. I just added some Fluval BioMax Bio Ball thingys to mine. But I think I have them in the second from bottom basket.

I don't know if there is a "proper" order to layer the media in the four baskets.


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## brycerb (Dec 23, 2007)

I like to filter as much as possible before my bio media, just so they dont get gunked up. I also like the purigen on top. During cleaning if you put everything back in the canister with the top off and fill it with water, then put the top on, you don't have the prime it. The purigens weight keeps everything from floating.


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## locomotive282 (Jun 2, 2009)

I run two XP4s on my 90 Gallon Mbuna Tank. This is my set up:
1st Tray - 2 Filstar Foam 30, 2 Filstar Foam 20
2nd Tray - Seachem Matrix Bio Media, the tray holds almost 2 Liters worth!
3rd Tray - 500 ml bag of Seachem Carbon, 250ml bag of Seachem Phosguard
4th Tray - 1 Bag of Boyd Chemipure Elite, 1 250ml bag of Purigen
I top it off with a the Rena Microfiltration Pad.

I recommend that you place your Bio Media before your Chemical Media. The foam in the first tray is gonna catch alot of the gunk, after the foam the water is gonna still have plenty of oxygen and disolved organics (poo), this is what the bacteria need to thrive. In the third tray I run carbon and some phosphate control media. I feel the use of carbon is a personal choice, a good alternative media for the third tray would be filter floss. Finally in the third tray I would run as much Purigen as you can afford, not that a large quantity increases its total effectiveness, but it will last much longer before it needs to be recharged. Recharging Purigen is pain in the butt. I think the Microfiltration Pad on top is very important to extending the life of the impeller assembly; however, the major downside of this is that it will need to be replaced every month.

Also the best filter bags are these Magnavore Bags

I find that these fit the trays perfectly. The alternative is Seachem the bag but it is considerably more expensive.

Hope this info helps.


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

Ok...thanks everyone.

I am heading out of town right now, when I get back I will write your suggestions down and take them with me next time I go "fish supply" shopping.


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

Ok, I'm back in town now and I have a question...

I have read not to rinse the bio balls in tap water and to use water from the tank to rinse them in...ok, I get that. But what about the pads that go in the bottom tray? Can those be rinsed in tap water?

Second, I turned my filter off today for a few and when I turned it back on a lot of air bubbles were coming out of the spray bar....suddenly I noticed that my water looked like it had shredded tissue paper all in it! There were small white (almost transparent) pieces floating around all over the place. What in the world is that stuff? Is it safe? Is it a bad thing to get in the water like that? My fish didn't seem interested in trying to eat it. I noticed most of it was being sucked back in the filter, but I really would like to know what it is.


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## nick a (Apr 9, 2004)

That's just the stuff that develops on the inside of your tubing getting blown out. It'll happen worse when you clean your filter....the output flow rate slowly, slowly goes down as the media becomes clogged, then when you clean the media the flow rate jumps back up and will dislodge stuff. This actually eventually settles down quite a bit after 6-9 months of operation IME.

Bio media is always just swished and rinsed in NONchlorinated water--I prefer to use clean dechlored water vs tank water but it's all good. It's nice to have a small tupperware tub with your water in it sitting next to the sink (or wherever you're gonna clean the filter). As you take the filter apart, just drop the bio media in the tub and leave it there until you're ready to reassemble the filter. Swish it around to shake free any larger debris and pop it back in.

The foams should be squeezed & rinsed in tap water until they're as clean as you can get them. I never reuse fine material (floss--polishing pads--etc...), I've never found a way to really clean it without destroying it :lol: --so I just replace with new stuff.

I view the purpose of bio media is to be a 'life raft' for the bacteria colony to ride on when the rest of the filter is getting cleaned. Healthy bacteria colonies can grow extremely quickly to repopulate the rest of the media in the filter in a very short period of time---so all of your foams and flosses and everything else in contact with the water will quickly become "BIO" media as well.

HTHs


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

I just cleaned our XP4 for the first time on Sunday. Exactly what you describe. The Rena hoses seem to be kinda "teflon-like" in that the gack peels off in sheets from the increased flow after a good cleaning.... so there'll be a little "snow storm" for a bit. :lol:

As nick said, chlorine is bad for bacteria, as it breaks down their cell walls. So you never want to expose your "beneficial" bacteria to this stuff.... so just swish the bio-media in tank water.

On reassembly, I just put the 4 clean Rena sponges back in the bottom tray, a pile of filter floss in trays 2 and 3, and then a New Micron pad on the very top with the bio-media just below it.

-Ryan


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

Another question... sometimes I think too much.....

When doing maintenance on my Rena xp4 cansiter, I know you're not supposed to rinse the ceramic rings (bio balls) in tap water. But I have heard its ok to rinse the bottom pads that catch the larger debris in tap water b/c they aren't there for bacteria purposes anyway... right? But my main question is.....after I remove all 4 baskets from the canister and I look inside my actual canister that is still full of water I can see a ton a food particles sitting on the bottom of it. Am I supposed to dump all that water out before placing the baskets back into the canister or leave it alone? I mean that's a ton of waste to just leave, ya know. But, if I dump the water out would it not kill the bacteria on the cermanic rings when it fills back up with clean water?? What's the proper way of doing this junk, lol. Hmmmm!


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

I just put the bio media in a bucket of tank water or dechlorinated tap water, and "swizzle" it gently before putting it back into the canister... but as for everything else(!), I rinse and squeeze "ad naseum" in warm tap water under the faucet. Lots of gack comes out of the filter sponges!

Once all of the stuff is out of the canister, absolutely pour all of that scary stuff down the drain! That'll just re-clog the filter! Wipe the inside of the canister with a paper towel to get the slime off the inside, and then reassemble. Our kitchen faucet has a spiffy feature that lets you pull the faucet part out (it has like 6 feet of hose hiding inside) so I can hold it over the canister sitting on the counter. I then fill the canister 75% of the way after adding some water conditioner/dechlorinator. Then fire it all back up under the tank, and let the snow storm begin! At this point I go and hide somewhere in the house for when my wife finds my mess at the sink! :lol:

Some things I've noticed:

The micro/fine filter pad is a write off after being used once. Definitely replace it. Next time, I'm going to put it one basket below the topmost basket, since the top basket just has a smaller hole on the top (whereas the other baskets are fully open on top), so only a small circle in the center of the pad gets used. I'll probably put bio-balls or some other bio-media n the top basket.

I need to just buy a crate of the Rena mechanical filter pads. Cleaning them under the tap gets them a whole lot cleaner, but they just don't get back to that "like-new" kind of clean, so the filter needs cleaning a little bit sooner.

I really do love these XP canister filters. The Rena tubing is just slick... literally. Once the canister is cleaned, all of the gack in the tubing gets blown out. Our Magnum 350's have a real easy-to-clean canister, but the grossness does grow inside the tubing, and it doesn't help that I have them plumbed a bit more complicatedly (UV Sterilizers/BioWheels)... so I need to tear the system all down once every few months and fish (no pun intended) brushes through all of the hoses to get it all cleaned out.

-Ryan


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

RyanR said:


> I just put the bio media in a bucket of tank water or dechlorinated tap water, and "swizzle" it gently before putting it back into the canister... but as for everything else(!), I rinse and squeeze "ad naseum" in warm tap water under the faucet. Lots of gack comes out of the filter sponges!
> 
> Once all of the stuff is out of the canister, absolutely pour all of that scary stuff down the drain! That'll just re-clog the filter! Wipe the inside of the canister with a paper towel to get the slime off the inside, and then reassemble. Our kitchen faucet has a spiffy feature that lets you pull the faucet part out (it has like 6 feet of hose hiding inside) so I can hold it over the canister sitting on the counter. I then fill the canister 75% of the way after adding some water conditioner/dechlorinator. Then fire it all back up under the tank, and let the snow storm begin! At this point I go and hide somewhere in the house for when my wife finds my mess at the sink! :lol:
> 
> ...


Wow, thank you for the reply. I just didn't know if adding fresh water to the canister would kill the bacteria on the balls. Seems like it wouldn't be any different than rinsing the balls in tap water, b/c either way the fresh tap water is hitting the balls.

I really love my Xp4 too. I just bought some Purigen on eBay to use in the very top basket. Hopefully it will be here soon.


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## nick a (Apr 9, 2004)

Agree with Ryan 100%--Absolutely dump out the nasty water!

Disagree on the refill tho---take the reassembled unit (completely empty of water) back to the tank. Hook it back up to the disconnect unit and let the can gravity fill from the tank. This is the method the manufacturer specifies and how IME it works best to avoid trapping air in the can. Give it a couple minutes (you can see the water level in the can). Plug the unit back in--I like to plug it in for a second/pull the plug/repeat a couple times--this helps blow out bubbles trapped in the foams etc... Top off the tank with some dechlored water & you're good to go :thumb:


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## alicem (Jul 26, 2007)

I suppose we all have our "ways" of doing things, so I'll add my 2cents.
Everyone has given you alot of advice for filling your canister baskets, so you see, there are many options. 
With all these good suggestions, you can customize yours to your liking.
:fish: 
As far as how I clean my XP 3 and 4 canisters goes, the following is how I do it, you should do as you like:

I _do not _wipe out the inside of the canister. I _do_ dump that old water (and it's contents) out and rinse with dechlorinated water.
Good bacteria lives on the surface of just about everything in the aquarium and probably on the inside of the canister too.

I _do not _rinse my sponges under tap water. I _do_ rinse them with dechlorinated water.
Seems to me there may be good bacteria in the sponges and dechlorinated water cleans them just as well as tap, so again, I try and save any bacteria possible.

I _do _rinse, or swish, the bio balls and ceramic thingies in dechlorinated water.

I _do _rinse the filter floss (I use sheets of quilt batting cut to fit) in dechlorinated and reuse them as long as they hold up. 
Again, my thinking is to save any potential for good bacteria living in it.

I _do_ refill the cansiter with dechlorinated water to within 3 inches from the top. 
The manufacturer does recommend letting the tank refill it after reconnection, but I just let it finish the filling the can.

It takes me about 5 gallons of dechlorinated water to rinse clean my filter and two or so to refill it.
I clean them every 1.5 months or so.

Yes, there will be a "snow storm" of floaties when you start your canister back up. The consensus of this forum group is that it's harmless and normal.
So, most times I go with the flow on that (hehe).

As an alternative, I have removed the spray bar (still attached to the filter) from the tank with the shutoff in the off position. 
Then I'll stick it in a 5 G bucket, open the shutoff and turn on the filter so it sprays into the bucket to clear it some.
Then turn off the filter, close the shutoff, reinstalled the spray bar, turn on the shutoff and filter.
It can be a mess and hassle, but there aren't as many floaties in the tank after all that.
 
There, you have yet another opinion on the subject. I think we all agree that canister filters are great, especially on larger tanks.
hth,


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## bossanova9 (Jul 9, 2012)

My xp3s have 1.Coarse and fine foam 2. seachem matrix 3. filter floss This setup works great. If I had an extra basket I'd probably try either purigen or more matrix, that stuff is great.


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