Sponge Bobs

[Richard James Patrick]

I have a Juwel Rio 180ltr tank up and running for 6 months now. It has an internal filter system made up of a series of sponges, it also has a dissposable wool layer which gets changed every week. I've read different opinions on how often you need to change/wash the filter sponges, at the moment I just rinse off any excess debris (in old tank water, once a week) from the top sponges as I'm nervous of doing damage to the bacteria. Can anybody advise if what I'm doing is okay or should I be replacing sponges?

 

[afishdude]

shouldnt need to be replaced. and just keep doing what you are doing (rinsing in old tank water) but make sure you dont throughly wash it or the bacteria will die

 

[Richard James Patrick]

shouldnt need to be replaced. and just keep doing what you are doing (rinsing in old tank water) but make sure you dont throughly wash it or the bacteria will die

that's great, thanks.

 

[vinylman]

Squeezing out the sponge should be enough. I use sponges until they're almost falling apart. Remember not to change them all at once when the time comes, though.

 

[Richard James Patrick]

Squeezing out the sponge should be enough. I use sponges until they're almost falling apart. Remember not to change them all at once when the time comes, though.

You know it's hillarious that the manufacturer (JUWEL) tell you to replace them 1 at a time every 6 weeks.
It's a bitt of a rip off and obviously not so good for the fish. Thanks for the advice.