Pollutants from Emperor 400s????

[RZS]

Hi All,

My friend has a 55gallon tank with a couple of emperor 400s, and he said it had been a few months since he changed the cartridges.

So figuring it was no big deal, I went over there and decided to give him a hand. We took out the media cartridge, and all of a sudden, A LOT of stuff came flying out of the filter, polluting the tank... we could barely even see the fish in there.

It was kind of yellow/brown coloured, and almost looked like cotton (which he did not have in the filters... only carbon, and the media filters from marineland).

Needless to say, we had to do a major water change, and hope that they will clear it up soon. Then we decided to change the media in the other emperor, and it did the same thing? Anyone have any idea what happened here, other than perhaps him taking too long to change the media?

Thanks.

 

[WILDER]

You didn't change all the media did you, you are meant to rinse it slightly in old tank water, when adding a new sponge cut it in half and remove half of the old sponge, this way you still have some benefical bacteria, also add some filter floss that will remove alot of the dirt and muck that came out of the filter, then add some new floss back the next day.

 

[RZS]

Hi,

Thanks for the help.

To answer your questions....

There are two bio wheels, two media cartridges, and two charcoal filled pads per filter, and he has two filters running.

What I did precisely, was to lift out the pad (to place them in a bucket with tank water to be cleaned), when all of the "pollutants" entered the tank.

What I did replace however, was the carbon in the 4 media cartridges (two per filter) using floss instead. I did not handle the bio-wheels at all.

I am still lost however, at the amount of stuff that came out of the filters... I was surprised the fish could even breathe in it.

 

[WILDER]

Thats ok then, they do get really messed up thats why you have to give them a rinse in old tank water now and then.

 

[RZS]

So he needn't worry, just perhaps clean more often?

 

[WILDER]

No need to worry tell him to test his nitrates they might be high if the sponges where really messy.

 

[RZS]

Will do.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Chunandler]

You're suppose to change the filters every 3-4 weeks... If you don't what you had happens..guessing you left it running too..

 

[RZS]

You're suppose to change the filters every 3-4 weeks... If you don't what you had happens..guessing you left it running too..

Hi,

That's why I went over there to change them for him (he said it was some ridiculous time... like 6 months since he even changed them).

Not sure what you mean by "left it running", but ALL of his media has now been changed (except the bio-wheels), I told him not to take the chance of something like that happening again.

If you mean that I left the filter running while we were changing the media... we did not, disconnected the power cord. The stuff actually spewed over the top of the exits. What we should have done, was remove the entire filter from the back of the tank before attempting to change the media I think.

 

[BobK]

Hi there. I have an Emperor 400 so I know exactly what you're talking about. After unplugging the filter you could have lifted the unit out of the tank and placed it into a bucket before actually removing the cartridges. That way the cartridges would have held most of the goop in the filter. However, depending on the location of the tank you might not have enough clearance to be able to do this w/o making a big mess. You can always follow up with another partial water change in a few days to bring the nitrates down if you find they're high. He's lucky he has a good friend like you to look after his tank.

 

[newfishies]

i thought you are just supposed to rinse the cartridges in tank water every few weeks, not replace them?

 

[fufanu360]

When you replace the filter cartritges you loose all of your benificial bacteria from the media... which in turn may create a mini-cycle

 

[RZS]

Hi there. I have an Emperor 400 so I know exactly what you're talking about. After unplugging the filter you could have lifted the unit out of the tank and placed it into a bucket before actually removing the cartridges. That way the cartridges would have held most of the goop in the filter. However, depending on the location of the tank you might not have enough clearance to be able to do this w/o making a big mess. You can always follow up with another partial water change in a few days to bring the nitrates down if you find they're high. He's lucky he has a good friend like you to look after his tank.

Thanks.

Yeah, his space behind his tank is hard to reach, so I didn't want to try and lift it over in case I dumped all the water everywhere!



Next time, we... or perhaps he... will have to come up with a better way of doing this.

 

[RZS]

i thought you are just supposed to rinse the cartridges in tank water every few weeks, not replace them?

Marineland (who makes the filter) recommends changing the media every month to two months depending on your load.

I think the bio-wheel holds the beneficial bacteria, and the media containers are more for filtration. Aren't you supposed to change carbon almost monthly as well to prevent potential problems down the road?

 

[RZS]

When you replace the filter cartritges you loose all of your benificial bacteria from the media... which in turn may create a mini-cycle

Would that be the case when there are four bio-wheels involved as well (which were not disturbed)?

Thanks.