Hi guys,
Hopefully "Cycling" is the right forum as I'm hoping to prevent a new cycle. I have a fully cycled 20 gallon tank running at the moment and the first fish are in there. However, it's running an internal filter that came with the tank and I hate everything about it - it takes up a heap of space, the flow rate is garbage, it's ugly and it's capacity for holding filter media is almost non-existent. So I would like to change it for an external filter.
Normally the suggestion is to take the media from the existing cycled filter, put that into the new filter and hey presto, a new cycled filter. The problem is that the manufacturer says that the bacteria are housed on these slide out plastic panels (picture attached) and that the cartridges are just for mechanical filtration. So it isn't just a case of cutting up foam from one filter and putting it into another.
However, I'm thinking that if I remove those plastic panels and lay them flat between the sponge levels of the new external filter (and cut up the existing sponge cartridges and do the same with them for good measure), then that should work as I'll be transferring all of the existing filter media over to the new one. The water would still have to rise through each level of the external filter and therefore also through the plastic panels, so I don't see why this wouldn't work? Eventually the bacteria would spread and occupy all of the new foam in the new filter too, so at some point they could be removed.
Anyone see any problem with this?
Thanks all.
Hopefully "Cycling" is the right forum as I'm hoping to prevent a new cycle. I have a fully cycled 20 gallon tank running at the moment and the first fish are in there. However, it's running an internal filter that came with the tank and I hate everything about it - it takes up a heap of space, the flow rate is garbage, it's ugly and it's capacity for holding filter media is almost non-existent. So I would like to change it for an external filter.
Normally the suggestion is to take the media from the existing cycled filter, put that into the new filter and hey presto, a new cycled filter. The problem is that the manufacturer says that the bacteria are housed on these slide out plastic panels (picture attached) and that the cartridges are just for mechanical filtration. So it isn't just a case of cutting up foam from one filter and putting it into another.
However, I'm thinking that if I remove those plastic panels and lay them flat between the sponge levels of the new external filter (and cut up the existing sponge cartridges and do the same with them for good measure), then that should work as I'll be transferring all of the existing filter media over to the new one. The water would still have to rise through each level of the external filter and therefore also through the plastic panels, so I don't see why this wouldn't work? Eventually the bacteria would spread and occupy all of the new foam in the new filter too, so at some point they could be removed.
Anyone see any problem with this?
Thanks all.
