My friend is setting up a tank and has a Fluval canister filter...I was wondering if I should use prefilter media in one of the bottom baskets and BioMax in the highest level or if I should just do, say, carbon/Bio/Bio. I read a bit on prefilter and it seems to be essentially the same as Biomax but the description suggests it also offers some mechanical filtration for larger particles (not sure how necessary this is with the sponge as well - but whatever). What do you guys think? carbon/bio/bio, carbon/pre/bio, pre/bio/bio, or something else?

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30G planted aquarium with Aquaclear 50 and two Aquaclear 20s. 7 Cherry Barbs, 12 Cardinal Tetras, 1 Albino Bristlenose Pleco, 1 Golden Honey Gourami, and a handful of Ghost Shrimp.

I would go filter floss, carbon, biomax. That is, unless it is a planted tank, in which case I would just go filter floss and 2 layers of biomax. Filter floss strains out larger chunks of gunk that can mess with your filter's impeller, carbon strains out chemical agents, finer particulates, and "polishes" your water (also helps remove the "pond smell", as I like to call it). Biomax is a ceramic media with lots of bacteria-friendly surface area. Two differences between biomax and filter floss is biomax you virtually never change, and biomax doesn't stop the bigger gunk chunks.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!