Bought A Kit, Need Some Help

[Rediahs]

Okay, so I bought a kit with 29 gallon tank, 200 watt heater (it came with 100, and I complained, and they gave me a 200) and it has a Tetra WhisperEx 30 filter. I'm so confused by what I'm seeing in this thing.

I want to do fishless cycling. But I'm having trouble determining what exactly the bacteria are going to live on and whether I can keep using this "carbon" filter past the time it's supposed to be used and try to do it that way.

See, the filter comes with two things: 1) a carbon filter (a bunch of spongey stuff with some carbon trapped inside) and this weird plastic thing they call a "Bio scrubber", it's just plastic with a bunch of pieces that stick out, it says the bacteria is going to live on that, but I don't understand how bacteria would want to live on some plastic sticks Honestly When I first saw the carbon cartridge I thought THAT was spongey filter media but it turned out to be a carbon cartridge.

This is all really confusing and I'm getting depressed about this. I didn't really know much about filters but this didn't end up how I thought it would be. I am not sure what to do. This "bio scrubber" thing just seems really wrong, and I don't want carbon in my water! However, there is nothing filtering it if I remove the carbon cartridge, the plastic "bio scrubber" is just a big plastic disc.... I don't understand....

What do I do?!?! Anyone know anything about this filter, or get what I'm talking about at all?!?

I had a weird idea that maybe I could cut the carbon cartridge open and remove the carbon and then use that as my filter? It's this nice spongey thing... it seems nice... but carbon! That's no good for fishless cycling is it!

 

[OldMan47]

I have one of those filters that I bought just t try it out. The plastic bio thingy has enough surface area that it probably does a little biological filtering. The cartridge filter that I have is the one that I got with the filter a few months ago. I have rinsed it out a few times but have not yet decided to cut open the cartridge and remove the carbon. It is a very small amount of carbon and is doing no harm right where it is. The fishless cycle will progress just fine with the filter running with all of its contents.
I especially like the way that they give you a chemical timer so that they can sell you a new cartridge when the chemical timer has changed color. We used to do that using a circle on a calendar to keep track of the 30 days recommended for filter changes but now they give you that same calendar circle in the form of a little chemical color changing strip of paper. Since I have learned to clean my filters when they get plugged up and change the media only when it falls apart, I no longer circle the change dates on my calendar or pay any attention to the paper strip timer they gave me.

 

[rewlyn]

no offence that sound s confusing and like a headache i would go by a fluval(personally)

 

[Rediahs]

Hm... with some searching and considering what you guys have said, I actually slit open the package and emptied the carbon out. Now I am hoping I can just use it as a biological filter along with the... whatchamacallit thing, bio plastic thing. Oh god, I don't understand how sticks of plastic are supposed to hold bacteria at ALL, it's so weird, but maybe it will work...

I will start my fishless cycling as soon as I can find ammonia

 

[OldMan47]

The plastic bristles will work the same as a bioball. They give you a fairly high surface area in a small volume. I can't say that I would trust them for a 30 gallon like the rating says but they should be fine with the added surface of the cartridge media.
bioball sitting in front of my keyboard

 

[Rediahs]

Oh okay. Thank you. Yeah that's what the bio thinger looks like except it's a board with lots of those sticking out of it. I guess it should work.

It does 160 gph, or so it says on the box. I heard you need at least 150 gph for a 30 gallon tank? So I think it's fine. Would have preferred 200 gph like the store said it was going to be but oh well...