Changing To External Filter.

[cybortech]

Hello,

Will be changing to an external at the weekend and I was wondering how you do this.

Is it best to keep the old filter going a while (Juwel 260) until the new one has had time to mature.

I have purchased the Tetratec Ex1200 seems to get quite good reviews could not afford Ehiem.

Thank you.

 

[basia]

Is it the internal Juwel filter? Are you planning to remove it when the other filter is up and running?
I have the Vision 260 and I've got an external Fluval running the tank as well as the internal filter. Would love the Tetratec have heard really good things about them.
If the media would fit into the external filter you could put the media into it and run it straight away but the Juwel filter media is too much to fit in I would imagine.
In that case I would just run the 2 filters together for a few weeks.

 

[voo]

Wash the juwel media in some tank water with the tetratec media, to transfer some of the bacteria and see it, then run them both in the tank for a couple of weeks. should be fine after that.

I have the Ex700 model. Great filters

 

[xoedusk]

One thing I would do: once you add your second (external) filter, slowly decrease your internal filter's contribution to the tank by decreasing the flow rate (gal/hr). Maybe over the course of a couple of weeks as voo said. This way, once you take the internal out completely, your tank won't be missing half of its bacteria (though not sure how much of an effect this will have on your fish. Anybody?).