Changing External Filter

[fish-face]

thought i`d nearly completed a fishless cycle with a second hand canister filter (came with tank) but the filter has been playing up so i bought a eheim 2028 to swap over, what bits should i try to re use in order to keep some bacteria thats been built up,sorry if its a bit vague but i`m new to all this

 

[Squid]

thought i`d nearly completed a fishless cycle with a second hand canister filter (came with tank) but the filter has been playing up so i bought a eheim 2028 to swap over, what bits should i try to re use in order to keep some bacteria thats been built up,sorry if its a bit vague but i`m new to all this

What was the original filter? and what do you have in it.?

Squid

 

[fish-face]

its an atlantis 500, its got those tubes with the holes in at the bottom then a course filter pad in the middle then polywool at the top

 

[Squid]

This is just my opinion...



If the 2028 is the one with three trays. I beleive they recommend that you normally fill the bottom tray with efimech (*spelling) and substrat pro for the top two trays. You could fill the top and bottom tray as you normally would, but take the atlantis tubes (which sound similar to the efimech) and put them in the middle with a bit of the filter pad from the atlantis too.. then at a later date when the rest is full of lovely bacteria, you could start to swap it out for substrat pro later... Ignore the polywool from the old one!

or..

maybe some of those tubes could be mixed with some of the efimech ones.. i dont know though...

perhaps someone else might have some suggestions.. but i might try with the first one.

Squid

 

[fish-face]

thanks for such a quick reply, one last question what sort of time would the existing bacteria last as i have to change the water pipes as these are bigger but have to take old piping out first

 

[Squid]

easily long enough for setting up the new filter. but keep the old stuff in tank water whilst you do the swap..

Squid

 

[fish-face]

thanks again