Filter Question

[G_Thing]

Ive been keepin fish for three weeks now in my 7 galon tank, the filter im using is a hydor K10||, its a two stage filter first is the mechanical filteration, which is done through open cell foam, the second is done through carbon. My tank is still cycling at the mo and nitrates are high. So i know i shouldn change this but after reading some articles they say i should only put in the carbon to remove medicines, so should i remove this while its cycling, and can i change the foam for a better type of filteration media.
thanks

 

[ox5477]

I would agree that carbon is only neccessary in fresh after medication treatments for illnesses to remove all remnances of the of the medicine. You can keep it in your filter normally as it wont hurt anything and gives another porous media for bacteria to grow on and in like the foam. The foam is fine too. It has lots of knooks and crannies for bacteria to live so I would say your filter is fine right now and no need to change it.

The only improvement I could say would to maybe replace the carbon insert with another foam pad, if you can fit one as this gives far superior surface area for the mechanical filtration but for a 7 gallon, I would worry too much about your filtration as I'm sure one little foam pad will probably be more than enough for the bacteria requirements of your tank

 

[rdd1952]

I don't like carbon because it has to be replaced so often which means you are throwing away a lot of your bacteria everytime you do. I would leave it for now but get some other type of media such as ceramic rings (a google search will turn up plenty) and when you do replace it the first time, replace it with the new media. From that point on, you won't have to worry about changing it. I use a product called Matrix Bio-Max and it works great.