Marinia I25 Filter Slimy And Bloated?

[wulfie]

anyone have any experience with these filters? I checked mine on my last partial water change I noticed that the filter was flooding and pouring out of the top, so I removed the filter pad and noticed that it was bulging and has covered in all I can describe as slime. Swishing it around in some of the old tank water did nothing, water wouldn't even penetrate this slime. So, I put a new filter pad in, I know, I just killed what little bit of a cycle I had started, but is this normal for a filter pad? Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[wulfie]

so nobody has experienced this before?

 

[wulfie]

bump

 

[OldMan47]

You will have killed all of your cycle. Next time try actually scrubbing the filter pad in your waste tank water. A filter gains bacteria in a thin film in the media. It is not a slime coat but is pretty thin. I have seldom had any problem making sure that a filter pad is truly clean by washing it in a bucket of old tank water. The brown color that you see on your old filter pad is evidence of your bacterial colony. As long as that remains, you will do little damage by scrubbing your old filter media. Just don't use things like soap, brushes or bleach to get it clean.