Swapping From Internal Filter To External Filter

[Gazzae]

Hi all, a quick question please, I have a full matured internal filter running in my aquarium (100 ltrs), I want to upgrade to my fluval 204 which I have refurbished with new parts, am I right in thinking that because my internal filter was more than capable of running my tank I could just take all the sponges out of that and add them to my new external filter and ditch the internal. Thanks

 

[delta]

That's what I did, I crammed as much as I could fit in to my external from the two internals I'd been running. I have kept the 2 internals though as backups in case I ever have a filter failure.

 

[Gazzae]

Thanks for the info, I was planning on keeping the old sponges in there incase I need a hospital tank in the future

 

[alistairw]

I have a similar post somewhere here too. From what I have had explained you can just bung all your media from the internal filter into your external and technically you are immediately cycled! Easy as that!

I wouldn't check out the internal but keep it as a spare. My internal died on me last night and I had to rush out and buy a new one. I put all the media into the new one and hoped it would be cycled. A bit daunting when you have nmever done that before. Tested the water this evening and was all as should be so worried over nothing. It pays to have a spare!

I will be upgrading to a Tetra Tek ex700 next month!

Good luck with changing over, it should bd dead easy with your mature media!J

Al

 

[Gazzae]

Thanks!, yeah I am a bit worried because I've spent ages getting all my water parameters right, and don't want to crash the whole thing, I'll give it a go now I think

 

[delta]

It should be fine because basically all that will be different will be the container and the motor, as far as the water is concerned nothing really will have changed except maybe better flow. I just cut up my old sponges and bits so they would all fit in to the new filter so there was more or less exactly the same amount of bacteria as there had been beforehand.

 

[Gazzae]

Right, change over complete!, transferred all the sponges and took the internal filter out, all seems to be ticking over nicely, must say it looks a bit wired not having the internal in there any more!, I can't believe how much space it took up, I'll check my water stats tomorrow and make sure there's no spikes or any thing, thanks again!!

 

[delta]

Took me a little while to get used to the spaces where the filters had been, quickly filled them up with some nice plants though