Filter Help Needed

[barnsleyfisherman]

Had the tank up and running for 3 months now, and currently all water tests are ok, fish appear to be very happy in the tank and plants are coming along very well.

The only question I have is in regards to the filter. I do water changes every other week at the moment UNLESS I feel that one is neccesary sooner. Since I have had the tank I have not actually cleaned the pads / sponges within the filter or replaced the floss. I aim to do this within the next couple of days, the points I want answering are below.

1. Do I simply buy new and replace all the stuff within the filter (my thought is NO, because will removed the good stuff).
2. Do I simply take all the pads out and rinse in water taken from the tank.
3. Do I replace one part every other week (I.e. Floss this week, carbon in 2 weeks).

Any help would be appreciated.

Hopefully in the next few days I can post some pics for you all to see.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there

your quite correct the last thing you wanna do is replace everything, you'll just get rid of all the beneficial bacteria that's built up and your tank will cycle again putting your fishes health at risk.

ignore the filter manufacturers instructions that tell you to change things all the time, for the most part it'll do more harm than good and they just want you to spend more money on they're products.

firstly what filter media do you have? different one's need different actions, but here's how we do ours

water changes every week, when we notice the flow rate from the filter has dropped then we take out a bucket of water from the tank, open up the filter, take out sponges etc and just give them a few gentle squeezes in the bucket of tank water. all you want to do is remove the gunk that's causing the blockage. when the worst of the muck is off the sponges etc put them back in the filter and plug it straight back in. after 3/4 years when the filter sponge is ready to fall apart we take half the media out and replace it with new, leave it at least a month and then replace the other half. after replacing any media test the water daily over the next week or so, if you see any readings for ammonia or nitrite then your tank is having a mini cycle and you should do 20% daily water changes until they both read 0 consistently again.

you need to keep all filter media moist and keep the time taken to clean it to an absolute minimum.

hope that helps

 

[PaPeRo]

In general the sponge shouldn't need cleaning unless your filter doesn't use some kind of filter floss as a prefilter. The floss and carbon should be changed every 2-3 weeks.

 

[barnsleyfisherman]

Did the regular tank clean last night, but this time cleaned the floss, and first three sponges in old tank water. Took a matter of minutes, so was bank up and running very quickly.

All the sponges look fine, even after 3 months so don't think I will change them justb yet.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Did the regular tank clean last night, but this time cleaned the floss, and first three sponges in old tank water. Took a matter of minutes, so was bank up and running very quickly.

All the sponges look fine, even after 3 months so don't think I will change them justb yet.

very good, you won't need to after 3 months, i have sponges 3/4 YEARS old, they're still fine

 

[ECCO_]

I agree with PaPeRo, I change my filters every 2 weeks, 3 at the most. If I dont have money I wash the yucky stuff of the filter and replace the carbon with new.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i don't have carbon in my filter for everyday filtration, it's not really nescessary and the space could be better used with another sponge or ceramic media.

carbon is great for removing toxins from your water but it lasts literally just a few days, after this time it releases everything it's sucked up back into the water. It's therefore completely pointless to have it in your tank full time.

You should only really use it when you've added a medication or chemical to the water for some reason and want to remove it when the treatment period is over, then you should add new carbon, remove it 24hrs later and bin it

I do keep carbon in the house but it's used as and when nescessary rather than everyday.

hence me asking in my first post what media the OP was using