Just Got A New Fluval U2 Filter.....

[BPH]

Ok, my old Fluval 2 is on it's way out. I have bought a new Fluval U2 to replace it.

I'm presuming I have to run them both at the same time for a while until the new one is "aclimatised" (!)

Is this right? How long for? Does anybody else have any more advice?

I'm also going to take the carbon pad out....correct?

Any help is appreciated!

K x

 

[hollanda88]

Ok, my old Fluval 2 is on it's way out. I have bought a new Fluval U2 to replace it.

I'm presuming I have to run them both at the same time for a while until the new one is "aclimatised" (!)

Is this right? How long for? Does anybody else have any more advice?

I'm also going to take the carbon pad out....correct?

Any help is appreciated!

K x

Just take the pads out of the 2+ rince the u2 to get all the crap out and put the pads in the u2 and run it like that, unfortunatelly you can't run without carbon if you want floss. I rin mine with carbon so i can have the floss, it does no harm, its just wasted.

andrew

 

[BPH]

Ok, my old Fluval 2 is on it's way out. I have bought a new Fluval U2 to replace it.

I'm presuming I have to run them both at the same time for a while until the new one is "aclimatised" (!)

Is this right? How long for? Does anybody else have any more advice?

I'm also going to take the carbon pad out....correct?

Any help is appreciated!

K x

Just take the pads out of the 2+ rince the u2 to get all the crap out and put the pads in the u2 and run it like that, unfortunatelly you can't run without carbon if you want floss. I rin mine with carbon so i can have the floss, it does no harm, its just wasted.

andrew

Cheers, sounds easy. My 2+ pads are in bad shape, a bit torn etc. How can I go about getting the new pads in shape so I can use them in the new filter?

Sorry to sound dumb but what is floss?

 

[waterdrop]

Floss or polyfloss are the words we often use in fishkeeping to describe the fluffy milky white masses of hair-thin synthetic polymers (nylon is one of the trade names) often used for things like pillow stuffing. A bunch of it makes a very dense trap for small particles, yet allows water to flow through. As such, it makes an excellent "fine mechanical media" for aquarium filters and is frequently used as such. The down side of any fine mechanical media is that it will need more frequent changing, as it will more quickly get clogged with debris.

One of the problems for aquarists in acquiring polyfloss is being sure that the poly you get has not been "coated" with chemicals intended for other purposes. I believe one of the common problems are fire-retardant chemicals. Some hobbyists avoid this problem by only buying their bags of this stuff from the LFS. Careful inspection though can reveal its availability in the sewing/housewares sections of big-box stores like Walmart at much cheaper prices, where I believe it would be labeled as hypoallergenic. (I think rooster has posted about this.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[BPH]

Thanks Waterdrop. Do you have any hints on how to move from my old filter to my new one?

 

[waterdrop]

If you can run the both together in the tank for a month then I'd probably do that. If you need to remove the old one I guess what I'd consider doing would be to see whether it was feasible to cut/break up the old media and somehow stuff it into the media areas of the new filter, as much of it as possible. I'm not a user of either of those filters, so I don't know what tricks/limitations there might be.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rabbut]

If you don't want to move media across, just run side by site for a couple of months. One month is usually enough, but not always. Better safe than sorry IMO

 

[BPH]

I'd rather use the old pads in the new filter than run 2 filters for 2 months! Can I just leave the new pads floating around in the tank for a month until they are "ready" to be put into the new filter?

Or better still, use the new filter on it's own BUT, with ONE new pad and ONE old pad, then put the remaining new pad in after a month or so?

Hope that made sense, I just want to get it right!

Thankyou all

 

[rabbut]

^^You could do that. IMO, the best way is two in tandem for the time that you are crossing them over

You could do the one old and one new sponge in the new filter, but I'd still run the other mature sponge in the old filter before you switch off for a few days, just to make sure you don't get any mini-cycles You'd again need 2 months for the new sponge to become collonised and sufficient to take over from the old one when you replace it.

Leaving the new sponges floating in the tank will do nothing to mature them. They need a good flow over them for the bacteria to choose to settle on them

All the best
Rabbut

 

[BPH]

^^You could do that. IMO, the best way is two in tandem for the time that you are crossing them over

You could do the one old and one new sponge in the new filter, but I'd still run the other mature sponge in the old filter before you switch off for a few days, just to make sure you don't get any mini-cycles You'd again need 2 months for the new sponge to become collonised and sufficient to take over from the old one when you replace it.

Leaving the new sponges floating in the tank will do nothing to mature them. They need a good flow over them for the bacteria to choose to settle on them

All the best
Rabbut

Many thanks, this is what i'll do!!

K x