My filter is suddenly really loud

[FishFinatic77]

Cut your old filter media to fit in the new filter . Remove any carbon within the media if they are inside cartridges. Put a new sponge over the pieces of old media in the filter. That sponge will gradually get seeded with bb. In a few months, you could remove part of the old media if it is in bad shape and add more sponge...don't remove it all at once. Repeat a few month after that if you want to replace more old media. I use the bag of ceramics that comes with the filter. I put it on top of the rest of the media..it helps weight it down and will eventually build up more bb. I would not bother using the bag of carbon that comes with the new filter...just save it if you ever need to remove meds after treating the tank with meds.

Okay, thank you. I don't use cartridges anymore, I just use some sponge and polyfiber. I also have some clay pieces in the filter. So I can just move that all over to the new filter, right? The media is all pretty new, so I wouldn't have to replace anything for a while.

I find that it is best to have the aquaclear filter slightly tilted inward toward the water using the leveling device or shimming it. The AC can cause flooding onto your floor if the media gets too clogged but if you tilt it slightly inward the water would go back into the tank. I speak from experience. You should clean the media in tank water every two or three weeks to prevent clogging.

Thank you for the tip. I will definitely do that.