Juwel Bioflow Super Media Order: Official Guide vs. Internet Wisdom? Which way do you run yours?
I’m looking for some advice on the best way to stack the media in my Juwel Bioflow Super (running the Eccoflow 500 pump), as I'm seeing a lot of conflicting information online.
The official Juwel website says to stack from the top down:
- BioPad (Poly pad/floss)
- BioCarb (Carbon sponge)
- Nitrax (Nitrate remover)
- BioPlus Coarse / Fine sponges
However, a lot of hobbyists online suggest reversing this order entirely, running the coarse mechanical filtration at the very top and saving the finer/biological media for the bottom.
With the Bioflow Super, the inlet is at the top, so water flows straight down through the single column. Juwel's logic seems to be catching the finest muck first with the poly pad to protect the lower sponges from clogging. The counter-argument online is the classic "coarse to fine" rule so that the fine white pads don't clog up instantly and choke the flow.
I know both ways will technically work, but with a compact single-column filter, I'm really curious to know what configuration you guys actually find works best in practice. Do you stick to the manual, or have you flipped the stack for better performance and less maintenance?
Thanks in advance!