Customizing A Filter

[EX1EY]

OK, so for anybody thats not seen my previous thread I bought a juwel rekord 120 for £26 the other week. Unfortunately the filter was busted.

After much research I decided I would go with the Eheim pickup 2012 internal power filter. Seemed like a good choice for a beginner. Anyway its arrived today, yay!

I've taken it apart and the only media is one huge sponge, which is fine. BUT, I've read a lot on here and seen various types of filter media all housed in the same filter. So, I was wondering, can I customize what Ive got, is it advisable? I was wondering if i could cut the sponge down a bit and put layers of different media into the filter, for example I have what I beleive to be some ceramic pebbly stuff from the juwel filter and was wondering if it would be a good idea to put that in?

Any help would be great

Thanks!

 

[Tizer]

The sponge is perfectly fine, if you already have some mature sponge then yes, cut the new sponge up a little to make room for the mature one. Otherwise, its not worth messing around.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I believe ceramics are the single best biofilter media there is, because it NEVER needs to be replaced. It just needs a bit of a rinse every now and then. If it is matured (or even has been used in the past) it will greatly reduce the cycle duration. You can cut up the new sponge and create a bit of an empty chamber inside, into which you can place this ceramic material. You want to be careful to still have a very nice section of sponge around the outside though, the sponge will catch all the debris mechanically, while the ceramics will deal with the ammonia/nitrite. Of course, eventually the sponge will become colonized by the bacteria as well. But, eventually the sponge will give way and need to be replaced. The ceramics on the other hand never will.


if it were my filter. I would remove the sponge, cut it lengthwise in half and remove the middle bits to make a sort of bowl. Then I would do the same thing on the other half. I'd fill it up with ceramics and put the two halves together and put the ceramic sandwich back in to the filter. Then, every month or so, I'd dismantle the whole thing, take the sponge and ceramics out. Give them a good swish in old tank water to remove large bits of detritus. Then replace. This also gives you a chance to inspect the condition of the sponge. After a few years, you may notice it starting to deteriorate. At that time, I would cut a new sponge up in exactly the same manner as before, but instead of replacing the entire sponge, I would replace only one side at a time. (Remember, the sponges will be colonized by bacteria eventually and removing all of the sponge at once could put you through a mini-cycle.) So, I would then wait about 2-3 months and replace the other side of the sponge. Repeat this for as long as you own the filter. Just keep replacing the sponges when they start to really break down and only replace half of it at a time and the ceramics and the other half of the sponge will be able to make up for the missing material in terms of the biological filtration in no time. Obviously, when you replace a bit of the sponge as described, you will want to test your water for a few days afterward to ensure that everything goes according to plan, and be prepared for an emergency water change if the ammonia or nitrite spike at all.



This method is nice because if you ever want to start a new filter, you can just move some of the ceramics over to the new filter to seed that filter with the proper bacteria. Just replace the amount of ceramics taken out of the old filter when seeding the new one. The new ceramics will also become colonized by the bacteria and your old filter will be just fine, and the new filter will get a great kick start.


That is my advice. The alternative is to just stick with the sponge and cut it up as necessary when it needs replacing, or when you want to start a new filter. There is nothing wrong with just using the sponge, but I like the advantages of the ceramics a bit more.

 

[Tizer]

if it helps, i did THIS to seed a new filter using old mature ceramic media. Once it was cycled, i removed the ceramics and replaced it with a sponge though.

 

[EX1EY]

I believe ceramics are the single best biofilter media there is, because it NEVER needs to be replaced. It just needs a bit of a rinse every now and then. If it is matured (or even has been used in the past) it will greatly reduce the cycle duration. You can cut up the new sponge and create a bit of an empty chamber inside, into which you can place this ceramic material. You want to be careful to still have a very nice section of sponge around the outside though, the sponge will catch all the debris mechanically, while the ceramics will deal with the ammonia/nitrite. Of course, eventually the sponge will become colonized by the bacteria as well. But, eventually the sponge will give way and need to be replaced. The ceramics on the other hand never will.


if it were my filter. I would remove the sponge, cut it lengthwise in half and remove the middle bits to make a sort of bowl. Then I would do the same thing on the other half. I'd fill it up with ceramics and put the two halves together and put the ceramic sandwich back in to the filter. Then, every month or so, I'd dismantle the whole thing, take the sponge and ceramics out. Give them a good swish in old tank water to remove large bits of detritus. Then replace. This also gives you a chance to inspect the condition of the sponge. After a few years, you may notice it starting to deteriorate. At that time, I would cut a new sponge up in exactly the same manner as before, but instead of replacing the entire sponge, I would replace only one side at a time. (Remember, the sponges will be colonized by bacteria eventually and removing all of the sponge at once could put you through a mini-cycle.) So, I would then wait about 2-3 months and replace the other side of the sponge. Repeat this for as long as you own the filter. Just keep replacing the sponges when they start to really break down and only replace half of it at a time and the ceramics and the other half of the sponge will be able to make up for the missing material in terms of the biological filtration in no time. Obviously, when you replace a bit of the sponge as described, you will want to test your water for a few days afterward to ensure that everything goes according to plan, and be prepared for an emergency water change if the ammonia or nitrite spike at all.



This method is nice because if you ever want to start a new filter, you can just move some of the ceramics over to the new filter to seed that filter with the proper bacteria. Just replace the amount of ceramics taken out of the old filter when seeding the new one. The new ceramics will also become colonized by the bacteria and your old filter will be just fine, and the new filter will get a great kick start.


That is my advice. The alternative is to just stick with the sponge and cut it up as necessary when it needs replacing, or when you want to start a new filter. There is nothing wrong with just using the sponge, but I like the advantages of the ceramics a bit more.

Thats my idea of the perfect reply- very much obliged to you sir!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You're welcome. And Tizer that is where my idea came from. I don't know why you didn't just leave the ceramics in there. They are perfect for seeding future filters and no never have to worry about replacing it.

 

[Tizer]

You're welcome. And Tizer that is where my idea came from. I don't know why you didn't just leave the ceramics in there. They are perfect for seeding future filters and no never have to worry about replacing it.

because they went back into my big external filter, and replaced with a sponge, which gives me a 3 sponge filter than i can use to steal sponges from to put into my small internal electric fry filters to instantly cycle them shown in the tank here on the right:

Plus the sponges are better at trapping dirt than ceramics

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Well, that is certainly true. I hadn't considered fry. My fish are not really capable of breeding too much right now. Either they are egg scatterers and the eggs will get eaten quickly by someone, egg layers like cories same story, or all males like my guppies or singletons like my dwarf gouarami and BN plec. Not much fry going to be coming from that mix! And even if it did, I still have no where to put them. I just gave my 10 gallon tank to my brother for his wild caught minnows.

 

[EX1EY]

P.S Im right in thinking that the pebble looking thingies at the bottom of my current filter would be ceramic media.....right?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

More than likely. Can you post a pic? Are they rough to the touch? Do they feel like a piece of unfinished pottery? If so, then yes. The bacteria grow in the tiny little pores that are all over the ceramic material. It is a great home for bacteria.

 

[EX1EY]

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best i can do from work

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Hard to say for certain what is in the bottom. Even if they are just rocks, as long as they have rough surfaces, it will give the bacteria a home. Also, if they have been in your other filter for a long time, they will already be colonized and your new filter will be fully cycled very quickly - depending on how many fish were in the tank with the old filter and how many you put into your new filter.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

And now a word from the other side of the coin. IMO sponges are still the best single media out there in terms of cost efficiency. Ceramics do clog, do need to be replaced and are difficult to clean. I got rid of almost all of my ceramic media years ago and when I get a new filter that comes with it, I throw the stuff out and get sponges instead.

The sponge is really a dual media- bio and mechanical. The advantage is that weekly rinsing will wash out a lot of the mech waste and allows the bacteria to thrive. The problem I have with the ceramics is that they have tiny pores which will clog and which are not so easy to clean to restore flow. Morover there is no way to know how clogged ceamnic media has become. When I rinse out a sponge I can see what has come out.

IMO the ideal media load for a lot of filters is a combination of sponges and filter floss. The latter does great for trapping mech wastes and because it is so cheap is quick and easy to replace every week.

Sponges come in different degrees of porosity. That is, some sopnges are coarser and have larger "holes" while others are a finer sponges with more smaller "holes". Holes porosity is what creates more surface area for the bacteria to colonize. So my ideal sponge and floss loading uses a coarse sponge with a layer of floss on top of it and then a second, finer pored sponge on top.

I tried a number of ceramic media over the years and found that all eventually become clogged beyond my ability to clear them without also having to trash the bacteria. I even replaced the ceramic noodles in one of my Eheim Pro II 2026 baskets with sponges.

I can tell you that currently I have 25+ assorted power filters and almost all have been loaded with the sponge floss combo for years. I have replaced very few sponges in that time but replaced almost all of my cermics.( I also run another 9 sponge filters.)

Also, I am about to get a couple of the Poret foam sponges to try out. Folks I know who are using them all rave about them. They can be purchased with a special uplift tube which will create a more diffused bubble system than the traditional cross piece with the airline hooked into the top.

In short, I vote for sponges over most other media, especially in power filters and canisters.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That's why I love this forum! DIfferences of opinion makes for better discussions!

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Cirax Bioflow Filter Media, how will clog up? why would you need to replace it? and how is it difficult to clean?