JBL CombiBloc for CPe1500

JBL CombiBloc for CPe1500 is the foam set for the top basket of the JBL CristalProfi e1500: a medium-pored pad at 20 ppi and a fine-pored pad at 30 ppi, which together do the mechanical work before the water reaches the media below. JBL lists it for fresh and saltwater.

Key Features

• Two foam grades in one set: 20 ppi medium and 30 ppi fine. Coarse first, fine second, which is the only order that works.
• For the top filter basket: the stage the water hits first, and the one that gets dirtiest.
• Made for the JBL CristalProfi e1500: cut to the basket, so nothing has to be trimmed.
• Mechanical and biological: foam strains the solids out and houses bacteria at the same time.
• Fresh and saltwater: JBL states no harmful substances are released in either.
• The stage to keep clean: a clean top basket is what keeps the biological media below it working.

Looking After The Foams

• Rinse both pads in tank water at each service, squeezing gently rather than wringing them out.
• Keep them in order, coarse above fine. Swapping them round turns the fine pad into a blockage.
• Replace a pad when it stops springing back or starts to crumble, not to a calendar.
• If you replace both, do it at a different service from the biological media.
• Service before the flow drops noticeably rather than after.

Good To Know

• Rinse filter media in tank water, never under the tap. Chlorine kills the bacteria doing the biological work.
• Change one stage at a time, with a week or two between. Replacing all the media at once strips a filter of its bacteria.
• Media only works if water goes through it rather than round it. Fill the basket without ramming it, and check the flow afterwards.
• A new foam is bare of bacteria. Test ammonia and nitrite for a week or two after replacing one.
• Keeping the old pad in alongside a new one for a fortnight, where there is room, seeds the new foam much faster.
• Check which CristalProfi e you have before ordering. The baskets differ between models.