Changing Whole Filter Not Just Cartridge

[comet30]

Hi guys,

You have been very helpful before and I sure will help people when I can although I am still new to tropicals.

I have been running my fish tank now for about three months. I am fully stocked and cycled.

Recent water tests have been good, no nitrite or ammonia but quite high Nitrate. Also, my water has become cloudy. (I have the bloom months ago)

I feel that some of my problems are coming from a poor stock filter that came with my tank. Currently I am running an Elite Jet Flo 100 Filter for my 95 Litre tank but have just bought a Fluval U3 which I am hoping will sort a lot out. Can anyone advise the best way to swap them over? I am guessing that I will need to run both for a while whilst my new filter builds up the appropriate bacteria but would like some advice here.

Also, is it really best to ever change the filter media or just clean it in tank water? I ask this as I have been given conflicting answers and would like to do the best thing here.

Finally, I made an error with my gravel. It's the multicoloured stuff and looks awful. Also, its not really fine enough for my loaches or catfish to dig about in. Is there anyway of gradually replacing the gravel to either sand or a finer, nice colour gravel? My idea was to take out some gravel and use a long funnel to replace with new stuff without disturbing the water too much but not sure if anyone has tried this?

Many thanks,

 

[comet30]

Sorry, One more thing. My stock tank came with one light, a T8 Sun-Glo Bulb at 20 watts (60 Centimetres). It doesn't seem all that impressive although most of my live plants seem fine. I am thinking of upgrading to an Aqua Glo as it seems to be a better bulb for a tank with one bulb. Can anyone advise here?

 

[Atrixblue.-MFR-.]

Sorry, One more thing. My stock tank came with one light, a T8 Sun-Glo Bulb at 20 watts (60 Centimetres). It doesn't seem all that impressive although most of my live plants seem fine. I am thinking of upgrading to an Aqua Glo as it seems to be a better bulb for a tank with one bulb. Can anyone advise here?

just a question do you have the pink bulb! the one that shows off fish colours vibrantly? if so upgrade the bulb to a bright white instead that is recomended ofr live plant.

i use the pink bulb in my 4ft tank and it doest brighten everything up parse but does highlight fish colours. does your light starter only have 1 lightt outlet? if so i think the best thing you can do and cheapest is change the bulb, or spend a bit and get a starter that has 2 builb outlets allowing you to have 2 bulbs in the hood. i'm thinking of doing this as i can have the moonlight bulb and the bright white bulb, moonlight for night imitation for plantation and fish and a day bulb. i only use my light 3-6 hours a day depending on how sunny or dull it is outside and inside roomlighting.

what your first post suggests to me is that your going to do too much in too quick time. your original filter has only just established, i would suggest that you get a bowl of tank water when you do a small change and clean out your original filter in it assess whether that filter is ok or needs a change also seek out from the manufacterers instruction how long the filter should last or be changed.

if you buy a new filter system you would need to establish it all over again. look on here about using established media to cycle a tank in one week and do it that way. usually this entails wrapping up a bit of established gravel in a tight and putting it in with your new filter, this will help establish good bacteria.

sand is lovley looking but can be a nightmare if you havent cleaned it properly before hand to get all the dust out of it and will cloud your water periodically if you havent and clog your filtration.

if you want you can go all out and change filter and gravel at same time.

put water warm water in a decent size bucket with your heater and some stress zyme allow water in bucket to reach temp required for fish, dont worry about not having a heater in your tank the water will take ages to cool down and will stay room temp.

when removing heater dont forget to turn it off or youll break it by overheating it, genrally i leave the heater off for 10 mins then take out and wait till its room temp to put in bucket not to break the glass on heater or ruin the thermostat.

put some gravel and your established filter in the bucket also and an airstone if you have one just for oxygenation. put fish in bucket.

do what you need to do with your tank. dont forget to keep some established gravel to put in your new filter for cycling it.

dont forget to keep tank water to clean out the original filter, the you can fill your tank back up do the same in reverse with the heater, then put both your filters in the tank,after a week turn off your old filter (keep in water) wait 24 hours test your water to see if the new filter is coping with toxicity in the water if levels are coming down retest it after another 24 hours they should all be low by then and your new filter established.

 

[Flagtail]

Hello and welcome to the site.
I'm not good with changing filters, I just know how to change the cartridge.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum comet30.

You have a newly established filter so you definitely do not want to lose any of the benefit it is providing for your fish. If you want to cycle a new filter and bring it along nicely, it can be done in a bucket of water by simply using your cleaning bucket to cycle it. When you do a water change, save some of the water and clean your existing cycled filter in it as you always would. Start running the new filter on that bucket for a while to get a nice big starter culture of bacteria into the new filter. I do this on a new tank but you only have the one to work with. Once you have a nice big coating of the right bacteria on your new filter, you can dump the old water, refill your tank with fresh water and set up that spiked new filter in a bucket of dechlorinated water. Just dose the bucket as if you were putting the filter through a normal fishless cycle and test for a few days. I often find that a newly established filter will cycle in about a week with this basic technique although I have modified it a bit to account for only having one tank. By the time you are ready for your next water change, you may well have a functional newly cycled filter. If not, you can always set the filter aside in a small container, do you water change and go back to cycling the new filter on the bucket for another week.
As far as replacing filter media, manufacturers will recommend frequent filter media changes. They tend to suggest changing things so often that if you followed their advice you would never achieve a cycled filter. Many of us never change any filter media until it can no longer be cleaned because it is falling apart. At that point, I will do what I can to use the old media to give my new media a good start. A sponge can be cut up and placed into the filter strategically with the new sponges. A cartridge type filter media can also be cut up and stuffed into a new cartridge where the carbon would normally go. When it comes to saving my cycled filter bacteria, I am a bit of a fanatic.
Your lamp question is simple to answer. If you don't like the color of the fluorescent tube, change it. Nothing you do to a plant type tube will really affect how well the tube works with your plants but it may make things more pleasing to your eye. I tend to favor a spectrum that imitates daylight at about 5500K, but each of us finds the light they like for the fish that they have. Any spectrum from about 3000K to 6700K will promote about the same amount of plant growth, so tube selection usually comes down to your tastes.
If you choose to try to increase your light levels, it can indeed be done by simply rewiring the light fixture to accommodate more or different tubes. I have a couple of light strips that have been rewired to hold compact fluorescents at much higher wattage than the original light strip was intended to support. I bought mine in a kit that came with a new reflector, a ballast and the wiring connections to run the new fluorescent tubes. I have also replaced ballasts that burn out and done other minor maintenance on my light strips. I have also converted the fixtures that require you to hold the button down until the lamp lights over to modern electronic ballast arrangements. Any of these options can improve lighting but for a first time attempt, I would stick to a kit put together by a lighting company. In the US, AHSupply makes such kits and I am sure other companies do similar things in other places.

 

[Assaye]

I would keep it really simple - wash out the new filter just to make sure there is no dust and such on it and then take the media out of it and fill it up with the media from your old filter. Top up with fresh media from the U3 and you have a cycled filter.

However, you can't really have too much filtration (as long as you don't end up with water flow that is too strong for the fish) so why not just run both filters in the tank? I run multiple filters on several of my tanks and it gives great filtration and helps prevent 'dead spots' (areas of stagnant water that don't get filtered much) developing.