Breaking In The New Filter

[Dave Pauls]

so I got a new filter... it is a Jebo 809, and it is beautifull. I have a 65 gallon tank that has been going for about a month and a half. I have a aquaclear 500 on there now, and I really don't like it, and would like to remove it. how long will it take for the bacteria to build up on the new filter? should I be puting some of the sponge from the old one in the new canister? or will the bacteria be transfered through the water? basicly I just set it up and have both filters running. how long do I have to do this before I remove the old one? is there a better way to make this transition?

 

[Maximumbob]

so I got a new filter... it is a Jebo 809, and it is beautifull. I have a 65 gallon tank that has been going for about a month and a half. I have a aquaclear 500 on there now, and I really don't like it, and would like to remove it. how long will it take for the bacteria to build up on the new filter? should I be puting some of the sponge from the old one in the new canister? or will the bacteria be transfered through the water? basicly I just set it up and have both filters running. how long do I have to do this before I remove the old one? is there a better way to make this transition?

When I switched mine from internal to external I gave the new filter a big squeeze of filter gunk from my established filter and ran it alongside for 4 weeks.

 

[Dave Pauls]

there isn't a quicker way to do it? what if I remove the sponge from the old filter, cut it in half so it fits in one of the trays of the canister filter and just run that? the issue is that this is a fully planted tank, with CO2 injection, and the old filter causes way too much surface agitation which is driving my CO2 out and causing me all kinds of problems. the faster I make this transition, the better. hmm.
DAVE

 

[Maximumbob]

I deliberately left it a long time to minimise stress to the fish.

If your tank is heavily planted and you transfer over some media then you could do it a lot quicker. Just remember, the quicker you do it, to more chance you run of getting a mini-cycle.

Frequent water testing is a must in quick changes. When I left mine for a month.. I didn't need to check water parameters more than twice above normal.

 

[chishnfips]

yeah I would say three weeks to be on the safe side, I did it with my tetra tec and it worked a treat, I reckon if you try and speed it up you will run into problems, like max said.

 

[jspence1]

I did mine in 2 weeks with no problems. I did the gunk squeeze when I first put the filter in. then when i pulled the old one out I used the filter from my tetra hob in place of the polishing filter of my eheim pro. 2 more weeks and I put the polishing filter in where it belonged.

 

[DarkEntity]

If you transfer half the media from the current filter into the new one, you could do it in a week-two weeks running simultaneously. Although im with others id leave it longer to maximize the bacteria buildup and lessen the chance of stressing the fish.