The best filter media to always have clear water

First off lets talk about filtration, most aquariums should have filtration that turns the water over 10 times per hour. This is where the gallons per hour (GPH) rating of your filter/s come into play; Someone once told me "you could never have enough filtration on your tank, only too much water flow", what does this mean? Well it means that your aquarium should have a current caused by water flow that is respectable of the fish in the tank, meaning that if you have fish that come from a fast current river area in the world then your tank should mimic that fast current.

I generally go with filters rated for a larger tank size then the one I plan to use it on.... This means if I'm setting up a 55 gallon tank, I go with filters rated for 75/90/125 gallon tanks; Now here's where things can get awkward, if you get a canister filter that has a 350GPH rating then once you fill up the filter with media like carbon, filter pads, foam pads, bio-media, etc... then the filters GPH rating actually goes down because of the media in the filter.

So now we're onto what filter media should be used so your tank has clear water; Now for my filters I go with the following.....

activated Carbon in a nylon bag (only when setting up a new tank)

filter padding

bio-media

and polyester fiber fill

So what is polyester fiber fill, well polyester fiber fill is nothing more then pillow stuffing that hasn't been chemically treated. Polyester fiber fill can be found at most hobby retailers like Hobby Lobby, Walmart, etc.. What polyester fiber fill does for an aquarium is trap micro debris that the filter pad misses, and also soaks up water discoloration & cloudiness. Polyester fiber fill is a cheap, and cost effective solution if you have discolored water, or a cloudy tank that just doesn't want to clear up. The greatest thing about polyester fiber fill is that the same clump can be used for months at a time, all you do is give the dirty clump a good rinse, and squeezing and you can put it back into the filter.

I use each clump of polyester fiber fill for 6 months, and during this I do once a month cleaning of my filters I just give it a good rinsing, and put it right back into the filter.