filter question

[joenrenee83]

How do I know when to change the filter? Just did a 20% water change. took the filter out and rinsed it in a bucket of tank water. It's lookin pretty nasty. The tank has been up for about a month. I have a over the back Whisper filter with those stupid carbon filled bag filters. I don't like them but it came with the tank. When should I change it?

 

[Balloon Fish]

the carbon stops working after 2 weeks or so so its pretty much no use now and you can change your filter pad like every few months to a year or whenever you think it is too dirty to clean anymore

 

[FroggyFox]

If your tank's only been up for about a month...I think I'd keep the pad for another month or two. You can go buy a box of replacement cartridges for that filter and the carbon comes in a seperate little pouch so you dont HAVE to use it if you dont want to.

Generally I change mine once every 6 mos to a year...just because its not white doesn't mean its "gross". Grin and bear it really...your tank will appreciate it and you wont have any fear of having to re-cycle your tank!

 

[Balloon Fish]

what if you have 2 pads for your filter? would that be better, cause you could change one then change the other one 2 months after that or longer

 

[discus4everGrl]

Carbon serves no real purpose during regular cycling. It is supposed to be used to take out medications, smelliness, or discoloration of the water. Carbon does not remove ammonia. If the carbon bugs ya then take it out. You can also buy those little mesh pouches from the same company which contain zeolite or ammoniazorb crystals which may be better served than the carbon unless you need it. Listen to froggy - keep the pad in as long as possible - it has the bacteria you need to keep the tank healthy

 

[Grymatta]

hey yeah..i keep seeing those ammoniazorb things in stores. Do they work? Are they worth trying out? I also saw one thats some sorta re-usable pad that soaks up ammonia. Forgot the name. But it claims that it can be "recharged" between uses...

 

[FroggyFox]

They're a waste of your time and money IMO. Are you having problems with ammonia? If it aint broke dont fix it. Besides that they screw with your test kit readings and take up space in your filter. Ammonia goes away naturally...so why spend money to soak it up?

 

[Grymatta]

yeah froggy..i got high ammonia right now..see my other posts...but its part of cycling I believe. Good advice tho..I'll hold off on buying that stuff.

 

[joenrenee83]

thanks for the info everyone. I took the carbon out when I put in filter in see how it really serves no purpose any how. Thanks again

 

[FroggyFox]

Oops sorry grymatta...I was confused and thinkin joenrenee posted that Blonde moment.

 

[revfred]

Even when leaving it in ... don't forget to rinse it occassionally in dechlored water. Gets the heavy crud out while preserving the bacteria colonies.

 

[discus4everGrl]

yeah, btw - I wasn't talking about ammo-zorb pillow. Those pillows are expensive. I was talking about ammochips. I have no experience with the ammozorb pillow, but I have used the nitrazorb pillow in the past and it did work - and very quickly

 

[Grymatta]

No problem Froggy! Just dont let it happen again!

Oh yeah, listen to Froggy about the filter advice. After I read his suggestion, I rinsed my filter media/pad in tank water and most of the gunk came off! Saves me $8 to get a replacement one.

Discus4evergrl - Oh ok..are you talking about those chips that come in the milk cartons? I see em everywhere too. Those pillows cost about 10 bucks I think..never used em. How does the nitrazorb pillow work? Maybe I can use it to get rid of my pesky trace nitrites..

 

[Grymatta]

Hey you know what? I was reading a book on freshwater aquarium and the author mentioned that if you dont remove the carbon from the filter, there is a possibility of the "toxins" adsorbed into the carbon, being release back into the water.

Is this possible? Maybe I should be removing my carbon after its used up?

 

[FroggyFox]

I think that possibility is what makes most of us just not bother using carbon in filters unless we put it in there on purpose to take something out of the water for a week or two. We've had the debate on here before about how long it would actually take before the carbon starts putting things back into your water and I dont think we came to a good conclusion. Someone explained it like carbon being a sponge for the nasties...there's lots of holes for the bad stuff to go into. Then once its full...its full. Even though it wont be taking anything else out of your water because its "full", that doesn't necessarily mean it will put stuff back into your water...it takes a long time for carbon to break down...thats why the use it for things like "carbon dating" I believe.

 

[Balloon Fish]

on the marineland filter cartridges they all have a little carbon inside of them and i just leave them there... its not like if you take out some blue medicine and 3 months later you tank all of a sudden turns back into blue by leaving the carbon in there...

 

[Grymatta]

hmmm that makes sense Froggy..thanks for clarfying it!

 

[Tarah]

So, are you guys saying that it would be good to just take the carbon out of the pouch, and put the pouch back in alone? It still filters then? I have a newer 10gal too, that isn't quite done cycling. And I was wondering the same thing. I have replacement pouches, but didn't want to ruin my bacteria colony by replacing it before the cycle's over. Wondered when I should. It said every month. So I should keep using the same pouch? Or just take the carbon out of the new one and use the new one?

 

[Grymatta]

are you using the Marineland's Eclipse filter/carbon cartridges?

I guess the basic gist of it is that the filter floss/media is good and should remain.
the carbon is useless after its used up and doesnt do anything afterwards..

I'm thinking about cutting out the filter floss and slapping in on top of either another Eclipse cartridge so that the bacteria will migrate over to the new one. Or maybe I'll just put the cut out filter pad on top of some new carbon...

Is that a bad idea?

 

[twoluvcats]

grymatta, because you have a bio-wheel, you don't need to worry about maintaing your old floss as much as people without one do.

Here's what I do with my eclipse 5: take a blue cartrige, slit the far side (away from the intake, or closest to the bio-wheel), dump out the carbon, add back about the same amount of Seachem's Renew (there is icky bad stuff that i need to take out of our water...but carbon seems to harsh) and then slap the filter cartige back in. If you want to keep the floss, there is enough space underneath the cartrige that you can cut it off the old filter and set it in that little space. HTH