need some quick/emergency advice

[frankenfish]

it has come to the point where i really do need to change my filter. its disgusting, its full of, crap, and most importantly its really not doing its job anymore. the tank is full of floaty yuckies. i know your not supposed to change filters very often because of the bacteria they hold but what do you do when you actually NEED to change the filter?

 

[prsturm]

You shouldn't cycle at all really, since your gravel will have most of what you need. You can also just buy some sponge filler material for your filter box so that when you change main filters, the bacteria on the sponge will remian.

 

[pateceramics]

What kind of filter do you have? I haven't replaced our filter media in any of our tanks in the ten years we've been keeping fish. I know you need to tear the whole system apart for cleaning with undergravel filters occasionally, but I've never used those. I usually just pull the media out of ours (canister and HOB bio-wheel filters) every 2 weeks or so, and give it a swish through a bucket of water that I've just siphoned out of the tank during cleaning.

If you have a spongey bit, you can give it a GENTLE squeeze under the water to get the worst of the muck out. If you have the little ceramic tubes, gather them up in your hands and give them a quick shake in the water. If you have carbon in a little net baggie, give the baggie a swish. The bacteria that colonize your filter stick themselves onto the surfaces and into the little cracks and crevices of your filter media. If you just lightly swish the media through some tank temperature, dechlorinated water, they aren't going to fall off, but the plant debris and fish mulm will. Just be sure this is a quick rinse. They need the water movement and aeration provided by your filter to be happy and healthy, so put them back into it and turn it back on promptly. This should only take you a minute. You aren't scrubbing, just a swish and pop the media back in.

If you feel like your current filter just isn't giving you enough filtration for the tank, that's another issue. I'd get a new filter rated for a larger tank, and run it along side your existing filter for a few weeks to a month. By then you can assume it will be well-colonized and remove the old filter. Save it for a smaller or more lightly stocked tank some other time, or for an emergency back-up.

Hope that helps!

 

[Thyra]

I probably depends on the type of filter you have. When I got on this forum everyone said to "swish" but nothing "swished off" it was packed. So I changed the filter media - and checked parameters daily for a while - nothing changed. Supposedly the frame that holds my filter media in and also the grid in front has most of the good bacteria according to Aqueon (which are the filters I use). Following is a site (thread) I found that was interesting - especially the input from "BettaBaby"

Carbon -- to use or not to use?

 

[frankenfish]

i have an aqeon quetflow 10. and ya i dont think it is the filter media itself (i did change it though. threw the old one out. too late now). tomorrow i'm gonna take the whole thing apart and give it a good cleaning. i can see the algae growing on the intake tube and it really seems to be slowing it down.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I have replaced and/or thoroughly washed the filter medium with tap water in my filters many times over the years without any problems. I also sometimes clean the intake tubes and screens with a brush to remove the gunk that builds up and does slow down the flow of water and then rinse them out with tap water. I also have pulled the impeller assembly and cleaned the build up with a soft brush and rinsed with tap water many times over the years. I usually shake the excess tap water off before reassembling the filter. I just rinse the components enough to remove the gunk. I leave the slime layer on the inside surface of the filter box.

I have found that the filter medium can be rinsed many times before becoming too clogged up to continue in use. I will rinse the filter medium outside with a garden hose when the weather is decent.

My water quality does not go bad when I do this. The beneficial bacteria in question must be on the other tank surfaces such as the gravel and the plants. I also keep an air stone in all of my tanks and a separate sponge filter in those without gravel.

I have, in the past, kept a layer of glass marbles in the base of a filter and just left them alone while only having to clean or change the filter medium above them. I still have a bag of those marbles and need to see if there is a practical way to add them to one of the current styles of power filter that I now use.

If you are concerned about "breaking a cycle", a sponge filter can be placed in a tank in addition to the HOB power filter. I have buried sponge filters in the gravel in a back corner of many tanks and simply left them there. One tip picked up from this forum is to split the sponge of a sponge filter and only clean half at a time.