Just Got 4 Tropical Fish - Please Read

[lamonsas]

in instructions it says change carbon every month

 

[TigerLotus]

Hi,
I have the same filter you just bought the Aqua Clear. Its a really good filter and is very reliable. What I do is I change my carbon every 2 - 4 weeks. I hardly ever change my sponge, I just give it a good cleaning in old tank water once every month or so, I don't even clean it enough to make all white again just enough to get some of the gunk off. I also change biomax every month or so, sometimes not even that. But I NEVER change them all on the same day there always changed a good one to two weeks apart. This routine has worked for me very well. This is what I personally do, its just to give you ideas. You really have to do what is best for your tank.
For example, I have two filters on all my tanks for a back up, extra filtration, and an extra supply of bacteria when the other is rebuilding from when I change the media. Some my say that's not even necessarily.

Good luck, it seems like you really trying with you fish : )


TigerLotus

 

[Musho3210]

in instructions it says change carbon every month

carbon only does its job for about 48-72 hours in a typically stocked freshwater tank

 

[o0ric0o]

sorry guys n girls but i only read to page 3 and this person has a serious attitude problem
and frankly halming poor defenceless fish, my advice to you lamonsas is take all ur fish back to the lfs
sell ur tank and give this hobby up ur heart isnt in it, tbh im disgusted with your attitude toward other valvued members of this site which are trying to help you!!

guys i suggest ya stop trying to help this person who clearly doesnt give a monkeys about the fish.

sorry if i seem rude but im all for the fish's well being !

Ric

 

[lamonsas]

sorry guys n girls but i only read to page 3 and this person has a serious attitude problemand frankly halming poor defenceless fish, my advice to you lamonsas is take all ur fish back to the lfssell ur tank and give this hobby up ur heart isnt in it, tbh im disgusted with your attitude toward other valvued members of this site which are trying to help you!! guys i suggest ya stop trying to help this person who clearly doesnt give a monkeys about the fish.sorry if i seem rude but im all for the fish's well being ! Ric

3 pages? well i suggest you read the last pages because you are being reported atm, do not ever insult me for something i never do. icame here for help, you go sell ur tank because ur obviously SOO lazy to even reead 6 forums pages. like i said you have been reported.

in instructions it says change carbon every month

carbon only does its job for about 48-72 hours in a typically stocked freshwater tank

typically stocked? i have only 4 fish and the instructions of the filter say to change carbon every month and the biomax every 3 months. and foam insert every 2 months.

 

[Tolak]

Before I switched over to a centralized system I was running mainly AquaClear filters. I have a box full of used AC 20's & 50's, I'm slowly selling them off to friends. They are in my opinion the best power filters you can buy; I've given them the torture test in my breeding setup.

Ignore the literature that comes with the filter in regards to changing the media. The sponges last seemingly forever, I have some that were running over 7 years, and still good. Rinse them in old tank water, and put them back in, that is all that is needed. The only time I ran carbon was to remove meds; I have plenty new packages of carbon. The biomax came out in the last few years, like all ceramic bio medias it will last indefinitely.

So; save the carbon for when you need it, run the sponge & biomax. This leaves an empty slot, you can either run a second sponge, or run some filter floss to remove the finer particles.

 

[Chrispixx]

Lamonsas: Which size Aqua Clear did you get??

If you leave the carbon in the filter for a month it will leech everything it originally took out back into the tank. Carbon is only needed for removing medications, leave it in for a week to remove meds then take the carbon out. I have five tanks and don't use carbon regularly. If i use it occasionally its in there for a week or less then removed.

Carbon can remove odors but you shouldn't have tank odor if you are doing regular water changes in the proper percentage.

I have an aqua clear filter and i remember the instructions saying to change the sponge and bio-max insert....this is because they want you to spend money on these products.

The bio-max insert should never be replaced only rinsed in old tank water in a bucket during a water change, the same goes with the sponge.

The sponge will only need to be replaced when it degrades (decays-falls apart) but this usually takes a long time(sometimes years). In this case when replacing the sponge put a new one in with the old one, then after two or three weeks after the bacteria colonizes the new sponge remove the old one.

Now that i've just repeated what Tolak said because we were posting at the same time....damn you Tolak stop following me around.

 

[Chrispixx]

Marine Depot.com
the address above is for marine depot Millennium 1000 Hang-On-Back Filter at a cost of $17.69

ibbledibble: That is a really nice filter.

 

[Chrispixx]

This leaves an empty slot, you can either run a second sponge, or run some filter floss to remove the finer particles.

This is what i do i run a finer floss sponge type pad in the bottom before the big sponge, to keep it from getting clogged with big debris.

 

[Amerce]

Manufacturers will also give you a short life span for their consumables, if they didn't then they would go out of business.

They make their biggest profit from the sale of consumables not the initial purchase of the device.

Listen to the people on the forum, the media you got in your filter will with care last you quite a lot longer than the instructions you got said.

Only use the carbon when you really need it, I don't have any carbon in my tanks. Got a combination of sponge and ceramics in them and of course the invaluable filter floss to polish the water with.

Carbon will strip out any medication you put in the tank.

Also note that you shouldn't wash any of your filtration media in tap water always use the tank water otherwise you will wash out the good bacteria needed to give you a healthy tank.

 

[ibbledibble]

Marine Depot.com
the address above is for marine depot Millennium 1000 Hang-On-Back Filter at a cost of $17.69

ibbledibble: That is a really nice filter.

yeah i thought it looked pretty good, good price too. I don't think you can get them over here in the uk. Not seen them anywhere anyway, i just had a look on ebay to try and find something to help this guy out and went on from there and using yahoo search and this was what i came up with.

p.s how do you get the link to work in your post? all i can manage is putting the address in. sorry i'm a bit useless

 

[Musho3210]

look at the size of carbon, there are many many micropores that will absorb unwanted things. The moment it leaves its sterilized container the pores start to get filled up, now look at your tank, imagine all the organic and unwanted things your tank has, how much do you really think a small amount of carbon that can probably take out only 5 ml of crap will last in a tank with fish who are constantly pouring organics in your tank and your tap water which is full of chemicals that the carbon will take out? If they lasted for a month then they should have doubled in size, due to the law of conservation of mass or something, if it absorbs something, it gets bigger.

 

[lilfishie]

maybe you didn't see my other post but do you know what sex the mollies are?

 

[lamonsas]

Before I switched over to a centralized system I was running mainly AquaClear filters. I have a box full of used AC 20's & 50's, I'm slowly selling them off to friends. They are in my opinion the best power filters you can buy; I've given them the torture test in my breeding setup.

Ignore the literature that comes with the filter in regards to changing the media. The sponges last seemingly forever, I have some that were running over 7 years, and still good. Rinse them in old tank water, and put them back in, that is all that is needed. The only time I ran carbon was to remove meds; I have plenty new packages of carbon. The biomax came out in the last few years, like all ceramic bio medias it will last indefinitely.

So; save the carbon for when you need it, run the sponge & biomax. This leaves an empty slot, you can either run a second sponge, or run some filter floss to remove the finer particles.

thanks alot for the info guys, i appriciate it alot, good to know that i dont need to worry about changing this and that, i have a question tho, with the left over slot, can i just leave it empty? i dont want to add another sponge or anything because then i need to spend more money etc etc and i dont want that atm, im a bit short on money, so yea can i just put the bio max and the sponge and leave 1 slot empty? btw remember i am treating my tank for ich, should i put my new filter now and take out the old filter or wait until monday night until i finish the treatment , then take out the old filter, install the new filter WITH carbon so it will remove the medication left over stuff from the tank? how long do i need to have the carbon in there for it ot remove the medication left over? thanks again guys i am really reliefed now. i have just 1 molly btw, i was confused, i have 2 swordtails, 1 molly and the other one i dont know it's kind, i think its called neon something, it was in the same tank the sword tails were in the store, very preety fish, and fast too oh and i got the 150GPH filter, its for 10-30 gallon tanks.

 

[lilfishie]

can u describe this other fish or even better get a picture, because if it is a neon then it needs to be in groups of at least 5 which i wouldn't reccomend with your current stocking