Filter Questions

[guppylover86]

Hi I am new to the fish world and have a few questions about filters. I have a topfin filter that came with the tank and it uses those charcoal bags. Is there a way to use a different media with this particular filter? Is there a better brand or type of filter out there? I have read that most people use charcoal only to remove medicine from their tanks and that charcoal lasts only so long before it gets totally saturated. What do I do at that point, because if I completely change the filter won't I be throwing away all the good bacteria? Thanks for any pointers or suggestions!

 

[Noahs ark6]

Does the filter only contain carbon and no sponge?


Fluval and tetratec internal filters are believed to be very good. What size is your tank.
Tetratec internal filters
Fluval U filters

When/if you get a new filter, just move all of the media from the old, cycled filter into the new filter and then place the new filter in the tank

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Hi there, welcome to the forum!

Because you've got a filter that hangs on the back of your tank, you're limited to using the charcoal bag types filter (as far as I'm aware). But the main part of it isn't the charcoal it's the actual bag which is where a lot of bacteria grows. Don't worry about the charcoal becoming "inactive" at that point it just becomes another place for bacteria to live, so no worries there

If you want to get a new filter it would depend on if you got an internal or an external filter as to how you would swap them out. What size is your tank? If it's not very small I would recommend you get an external filter and just put the media from your current filter into one of the compartments in the new external one. Eventually, after several weeks, you could remove the old media and just throw it away as it will have populated your new media. If you have a smaller tank, I would recommend getting an internal and just running both filters at the same time for several weeks. This method isn't as ideal as 1) you'll be cluttering your tank with two filters lol and 2) because the bacterial colony doesn't form as densly in two filters as it does in one so when you do eventually remove the old one, you may have a small ammonia and nitrite spike for a few days. So be sure to have a liquid based water test kit on hand to do daily checks and water changes just in case.

hmmmm, there must be some way yo move bacteria from the HOB media to new HOB media though, because you would at some point have to replace it Is there room for more than one filter bag or maybe for some foam media crammed in there somewhere?

 

[guppylover86]

My tank is pretty small, only 5.5 gal and the filter contains carbon no sponges. There is some room behind the charcoal bag, would stuffing some cut up sponges behind it be ok? I was at the lfs and saw the peguin bio wheel filters. Does anyone know anything about those?

@ almOstAwesome I am glad you won the betta painting contest, That was my favorite!! He is very beautiful

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I don't see why it should be a problem, are you thinking about changing your filter?

If not, I wouldn't worry about the media that's in there because you don't need to change it until it's actually falling apart (or if you needed to put new carbon in to remove meds)...so you could just leave it as it is until you think it's looking like it needs changed (which will probably take a long time) and then add the sponges in, for bacteria to grow on for 4 weeks or something then you could remove the old carbon bag and put a new one in along side the sponges?

There is one perk to adding a sponge now, which is there is more room for bacteria to grow and could possibly mean your water is kept fresher.

If you are planning on changing to a different internal filter then I think you'd be OK to just cut up the carbon bag and squish it in to another internal as best you can.

Oh and thank you! That was really fun! It'll be cool to see what he comes up with!

 

[guppylover86]

I'm not changing my filter yet, I have a recent setup and unfortuantly I am doing a fish-in cycle
That is going ok since I got some seachem prime. The lfs really pushes the bacteria in a bottle stuff but I really don't think it works as great as the bottle says. I am thinking about eventually getting a different filter setup for the tank, the one that came with my tank just seems to be the low end kind. Where would I get sponges and does the brand make a difference? I think I will try and put some behind the bag and see how it goes...

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Ah I see, well good luck with that Don't get frustrated!

No any old sponge will do - the smaller the holes in it the more it can hold in the way of bacteria and other yucky stuff that's in your tank. Just cut it to fit I agree though, it's good to have some mature media you can move around in case of emergency It will probably reduce the flow from your filter to keep an eye out in case that causes any problems.