Fluval Media maintenance

[Wishful]

Hi all
We're running a Fluval 204 External with 4 foam pads and BioMax, Peat Granules and Prefilter in the baskets. We have a 27 gallon tank.

The manual isn't really very informative about when the various media should be replaced, especially the foam pads. Could people with Fluval Externals (or I guess anyone else with a similar set up) tell me how often they do replacements?

Grateful for any feedback

Wishful

 

[breezer40]

I have several of these filters which are all over 18 months old and to date haven't changed any of the foam pads. The same goes for the biomax and prefilter. A couple of the foam pads are getting a bit tatty so this may change but I would only replace one pad at a time.

I also use peat but the fibre sort not the granules. I do change this about one a month because it starts to loose the effect of softening my water.

hope this helps

 

[Wishful]

Wow Breezer40 - 18 months! That's good. We were wondering whether we should start changing the foam pads around now - one or two at a time of course, because when we clean them they seem to be so full of stuff - I was wondering whether the performance gradually drops over time and the motor has to work harder?

Very interesting what you say about the peat - we've had the peat granules in there since we put the filter in last August and the pH is still .5 lower than our normal tap water as it was when we first put it in.

Anyone else have any experience to share with me?

Wishful