Filter Media

[Deleted member 55926]

OK, so I cut a piece of old filter pad from someone else's tank, and inserted it in the optional media gap between the two large pads inside my Fluval 3+ to try to speed up the fishless cycle.

Now I'm a bit confused. If I wanted to put a fine soft filter (like a polyester pad) or something in there after my cycle, how am I supposed to do that if the old filter pad contains all the bacteria? Am I supposed to cram something else in there too? I don't want to overload the filter or something. The mature pad comes from an inferior filter (a very cheap, built-in internal on ~50L beginner tank), and I'm not really sure if I'm now stuck with a filter pad that isn't as good as something I could be using from Fluval. So how does it work with replacing filter media but keeping the bacteria going?

Also, some more question about the Fluval internals:

1. I read that it has some sort of meter or 'clogging indicator' for alerting you to when the filter needs cleaning or new pads or something. Where is that? I can't see it.
   
2. What is the 'impellor' and how do you clean it? Or do you have to?
   
3. Does anyone ever use their filter horizontally? Is there any point in this?

 

[peeeet]

ok, the bacteria should now be living on every surface in the tank system. Taking out a mature filter pad will no doubt reduce the bacteria in there, but if it's mature enough, and the fish are not too delicate it should be ok. what is your tank stocked with and how long has it been there?
another option is to have one of the pads (the old you dont want or the new) floating in the water for a few weeks before taking out the old one and have a transition period. Are your fish going to try to eat it if you do that?!


the impellor is the spinning part of the pump. if you're meant to be able to take it out you'd have got a thing that looks like a keyring loop with a hook coming off it with the filter. if so, just look for a few mins to find the impellor. you wont have to clean it very often since the're usually on the 'out' side of the filter. if you do need to clean it (you'd know from a prolonged sound that's different to normal, but it's good to check when you clean the filter out) the hook should pull it out quite easily. it's held in by magnetism, so dont worry about breaking something holding it in, it's just a magnet resisting your pull.


never done it myself, but i think horizontal orientation to those filters will be to get the desired current direction. the nozzle only goes left to right, right?!
it's up to you, but i find that a lot of bits accumulate in the bottom (due to gravity..) on my canister filters. not sure if that happens on the internal ones, but it'd probably just blow a small amount of that back out if ou had it horizontal.

 

[Deleted member 55926]

I'm still cycling the tank, so no fish to worry about yet.

So do most people literally keep the same filter pad forever?

 

[grumpysteve]

you shouldn't need to replace any sponges until they start to fall apart, and you should try to stagger changing them, so you never change 2 at the same time. the only thing you should need to change in the filter regularly is the carbon (usually every 4-6 weeks, as the carbon becomes in-active after this) but if its a sponge you can leave it in there to act as bio media if you feel you don't need carbon (carbon take impurities and chemicals out of the water, but isn't considered an essential, especially if the tank is planted). you might have a pre filter sponge too, or something similar, that might need replacing sometimes (sorry, thats a bit vague, i've never had that particular filter).

the best way to tell if you need to clean anything in your filter is if the water flow slows down. just take all the sponges out of the filter and give them a quick squeeze in old tank water, and wipe any gunk off of working parts. try to not be over keen with cleaning though cos you don't want to get rid of any beneficial bacteria. i'd suggest a quick clean once every 4 weeks or so.

the piece of mature media will help "seed" your new filter, which means it will introduce some beneficial bacteria. if you want to put a better quality sponge in there i'd leave it til the cycle is nearly over, it might slow down the process a bit. but if you leave it til nearer the end of the cycle you'll have a better colony of bacteria, rather than taking it out too soon and having less bacteria (if that makes sense?)

 

[fatheadminnow]

Activated carbon only lasts for about 3 days, after which the carbon is all used up and will actually start to leak what it has trapped back into the tank.

I personally, and many other members on here, do not run carbon in our filters. Instead we have it on hand, just in case we need to use it in an emergency.

-FHM

 

[ian]

i discarded my carbon pads at the weekend, replaced them with 2 new sponges. The filtration appears to be better.

 

[peeeet]

I'm still cycling the tank, so no fish to worry about yet.

So do most people literally keep the same filter pad forever?

in 5 years i've not changed any coarse sponge, i just give it a good squeeze out in a bucket of tank water monthly or so. Fine filter media will get clogged faster and needs to be chucked, it can get pretty manky after a while! you'll figure it out.
if you can't clean it, change it. but never all at once


If you're still cycling and dont want to have the old stuff longer than you need, just float it in the tank.
You should start with species that can take changes incase anything unexpected happens. Especially if it's your first tank

 

[grumpysteve]

The process required for activated carbon to start leeching anything it has trapped requires extremely high temperatures. It does not leech anything back when in an aquarium as it will never reach these temperatures

 

[drobbyb]

The process required for activated carbon to start leeching anything it has trapped requires extremely high temperatures. It does not leech anything back when in an aquarium as it will never reach these temperatures

That's not what I have been told. Have you any proof of this? I would like to find out for sure.

 

[OldMan47]

Carbon is a simple adsorber, not an absorber. All material that it takes in is held on the surface of the carbon, you can think of it as things sticking to the outside of each carbon particle. If I use up all of the adsorption sites on the outside, each new thing coming into the filter will do one of two things. It may just drift through and end up back in the tank or it may replace something that has been previously adsorbed. To fully activate the carbon, you would indeed need to heat the carbon to very high temperatures but that does not mean that something that has been adsorbed will stay in the carbon forever either. All of the chemicals in the tank and flowing through the filter will eventually reach some sort of equilibrium state where nothing is being adsorbed and nothing is being released from the carbon. At that point, if a new chemical is introduced to the water, the carbon and the things adsorbed on it will need to reach a new balance that may or may not be the same things adsorbed to the carbon.

 

[drobbyb]

Thank you OldMan47 for the explanation. Exactly what I needed to hear!

 

[fatheadminnow]

The meaning of those two words escape me. Thanks OM for the reminder!

-FHM

 

[Mikaila31]

I agree with OldMan about the carbon.

With the Fluval 3+ disconnect the head, flip it upside down and you should see your impeller. It spins on a center rod. Impellers are magnetic, so you will need to grab one of its arms/blades? and pull it out. Should look similar to this, the green part should be exposed, that's what you grab. Just clean it off, you can use a brush or something to clean the hole it was in.

Someone mentioned pads exposed in the tank. Fish may peck at them, but they won't do any harm.

As far as removing your media, it doesn't need to be done until it starts falling apart. Sponges should have no problem lasting 5+ years, filter floss usually is a little less. If you do, for whatever reason, want to change the media. Its safe to change 1/3 every two weeks. This is no different than increasing the bioload by 1/3. Except you are reducing the amount of bacteria, not increasing the amount of waste it needs to process. The two weeks lets the bacteria increase back to the original level, during the two weeks you can't do anything that would increase the bioload, like add more fish.

 

[OldMan47]

Absorb is when something goes into a thing, like a sponge absorbs water. Adsorb is when something only sticks to the surface, which is what we find happening with carbon.

 

[grumpysteve]

Carbon is a simple adsorber, not an absorber. All material that it takes in is held on the surface of the carbon, you can think of it as things sticking to the outside of each carbon particle. If I use up all of the adsorption sites on the outside, each new thing coming into the filter will do one of two things. It may just drift through and end up back in the tank or it may replace something that has been previously adsorbed. To fully activate the carbon, you would indeed need to heat the carbon to very high temperatures but that does not mean that something that has been adsorbed will stay in the carbon forever either. All of the chemicals in the tank and flowing through the filter will eventually reach some sort of equilibrium state where nothing is being adsorbed and nothing is being released from the carbon. At that point, if a new chemical is introduced to the water, the carbon and the things adsorbed on it will need to reach a new balance that may or may not be the same things adsorbed to the carbon.

so does this mean leaving a carbon sponge in to become biomedia is essentially the same as using a different sponge for biomedia, and not using carbon at all?

the way i understand it is carbon adsorbs things from the water until its 'full', then these impurities will just filter through instead of being adsorbed (or replace things already adsorbed). so using carbon is only effective until its full, but the impurities stay adsorbed unless heated. ie, if you were to use carbon as a dechlorinator (for arguements sake, lets say there's no other impurities in the water) it would adsorb all of the chlorine, where it would stay, unless more chlorine was added to the water and this would replace the chlorine already adsorbed, or just flow through. meaning leaving the carbon in the tank would have no any negative effect, it would just be the same as not using it in the first place?

either way, manufacturers should recommend replacing carbon with every water change. if it only stays active for a few days but you change water every week then the carbon is having very little effect on the water quality as more impurities are being added each week, after the carbon is exhausted..... it really makes using carbon seem pretty pointless!