chrischeyne
Fish Fanatic
hi i have a jewel rio 300 with a big internal filter with 4 sponges (1 carbon sponge) and a Cirax Bioflow.whats the best way of cleaning it all together or part by part?
hi i have a jewel rio 300 with a big internal filter with 4 sponges (1 carbon sponge) and a Cirax Bioflow.whats the best way of cleaning it all together or part by part?
Make sure you use tank water! Just grab a bucket siphon some tank water in it put your filter media in there and wash them out. Never clean your filter media in unconditoned tap water the cholorine will kill the bacteria
how old is the tank? If its over six weeks, i would remove the carbon filter and replace it with a course sponge filter, unless your treating your fish with meds. There is also a nitrate sponge in there as well, i would change that for a fine sponge, thats if you haven't had a problem with nitrates.
Good option to point out Squid. I think its often underappreciated that carbon will also serve as a non-ideal but decent biological media even after its chemical function has long ago ceased (typically after the 3 days it takes for it to "fill up" chemically.) From the things I've read its thought to not provide as good or as high a quantity of surface area as ceramics or sponges can but its not terrible. Unfortunately, one of the other problems with it from a biological media standpoint is that it by nature will slowly but surely crumble and lose bits of itself and the bacteria clinging to it from the actions of water movement through the filter and from filter cleanings. By contrast, ceramics do this hardly at all and sponges only do it slowly over years. Of course the crumbling loss may not really lessen the bacteria all that much as one could picture their colonies re-growing on surfaces newly opened up when a piece breaks off and floats away, so I suppose we don't really know in truth. Anyway, the bottom line of the suggestion is that that carbon sponge would not be so bad a biological media that it couldn't be left in until some later time when the OP wanted to move on to new media in that spot.how old is the tank? If its over six weeks, i would remove the carbon filter and replace it with a course sponge filter, unless your treating your fish with meds. There is also a nitrate sponge in there as well, i would change that for a fine sponge, thats if you haven't had a problem with nitrates.
I used to have one of the juwel internal filters, but can't rememeber what the carbon fitler sponge looked like. Is it not like one of the course sponges anyway??? so if the carbon is no longer active, wouldn't it just act like a normal blue coarse sponge, and therefore would be ok left in?
Squid
Hi chrischeyne, I noticed in your other thread that you said you had already cycled the tank. Did you use fish-in or fishless method and how many days did it take if I may ask?
~~waterdrop~~
in the past i just left the carbon sponge in for about 2 mounths and just take it out all together by witch time the filter strong so it does note relly need the carbon any more.i have in the past also replaced it with jbl product base with clay and it just made the water brown so i just take it out now. i put filter balls in it and it does not do any thing better so i just take it out all together.the problem that i have had in the past i used to change the whole lot in 1 go and this in turn takes away all the bactrea.and i also used to wash all the filter stuff with tap water so this also killed the bactrea aswell so i wonted to know the best way of cleaning it? as befroe i used to lose fish every time i changed the filter stuff and then wonder why. i was a bit stupid about this as i did not buy the fish tank in the frist place i got it form a raffle at the local pet shop in aid of the rspca. hence i was chucked in at the deep end. chrishow old is the tank? If its over six weeks, i would remove the carbon filter and replace it with a course sponge filter, unless your treating your fish with meds. There is also a nitrate sponge in there as well, i would change that for a fine sponge, thats if you haven't had a problem with nitrates.
I used to have one of the juwel internal filters, but can't rememeber what the carbon fitler sponge looked like. Is it not like one of the course sponges anyway??? so if the carbon is no longer active, wouldn't it just act like a normal blue coarse sponge, and therefore would be ok left in?
Squid