Old Filter Cartridge

[sic0198]

I have a mature filter, it has a cycled filter cartridge. I'd like to use it in my new ftlter. The new one has a bag of activated carbon and a ball of some sort (don't know what that is?) Can I just insert the cartridge from my old tank into the compartment with the carbon and ball, and my tank will be ready for fish?

Am I supposed to open that bag?

It says it does 3 stage filtration on the box, what exactly is happening?

 

[bagu]

should be fine

you've got the beneficial bacteria in the sponge, so it should be good to go!

if the carbon etc is in a bag leave it in there; carbon is useless after a week but i have it ###### it keeps my water crystal clear.

3 stage in my tank means...

in compartment 1 i have sponge
in compartment 2 i have sponge, ceramic rings and carbon
in compartment 3 i have heater and powerhead =]

or it might mean it has 3 layers.

 

[sic0198]

It doesn't have a heater, had to put my own on the tank.

 

[cowboy507]

should be good, as long as the sponge hasnt dried out, and has not been washed in tap water, only old tank water

3 stage filtration might be

biological (the sponge)
mechanical (filters larger pieces in a type of sponge)
chemical (this would be the carbon)

 

[OldMan47]

The three types of filtration are chemical, mechanical and biological. It may well be that your filter contains something for each of these types of filtration. The mechanical is what removes the small particles floating around in the water. The chemical is things like carbon that remove organic materials directly by adsorption. The biological is often a medium that is capable of sustaining a large bacterial colony to remove ammonia and nitrites from your water. A filter that brags of doing all 3 functions is a bog standard filter. Anything less would be a definitely substandard filter in some respect. The new filter's descriptive information should tell you what the "bag" of media are expected to do and how to use that bag of stuff. My own experience is that filter manufacturers are often optimistic about how well their particular filter choice will work in your filter. I tend to replace any chemical media in a new filter with some kind of bio media. Since most uses for a chemical filter are to remove medications or to remove things like color or odor from the water, I feel that the space is better used making sure that my biological filter is adequate. I put the carbon or zeolite material on the shelf to use when it is needed for the tank rather than exhaust it by using it routinely. Meanwhile the biomedia that I have added help me control the ammonia and nitrites in my tank so that I never need to use medications in the tank that then would need to be removed. I would much rather avoid any treatments than know the perfect medication to use in each emergency. My entire approach to fish keeping is based on keeping things as they should be so that I need never learn all the intricacies of medication and followup care. It is sort of like what we do for ourselves by avoiding infection instead of being really good at curing our own illnesses.