Tetratec Ex1200

[Confish]

ive got as stated an ex 1200 and ive had it running for a few months or so and ive noticed people saying that the carbon bag in them are not needed? so i was wondering what other have or would have?

at the moment its

rings, black sponge
2 black sponge
bio balls
black sponge, 2 bags of carbon pieces, white polishing sponge

what would you change it too and what order and things i just want to get the most out of my filter. cheers in advance

 

[kaivalagi]

I am running the default as you are that comes with the filter, the carbon will lose it's effectiveness after only a week or so and won't do any harm just staying in there...

I may replace the carbon at some point for more "polishing" material at some point having the top tray half black sponge and half white...you can use any polishing material you can find, non brand name is cheap and can be replaced once a month to keep water crystal clear

 

[waterdrop]

Hey kaiv, what do you think happens when a "polishing pad" needs to be replaced. I've found myself thinking about that. I mean, in some ways it seems like the fine silt sort of stuff it will have picked up would seem to just keep making it a better and better filter for smaller debris. Obviously in some situations the floss pad could get totally clogged and need some squeezing out and then there are the times when a floss pad eventually can't handle any more squeeze-outs and wants to break apart, obviously crying out for replacement.

But what I was thinking about was whether during its reasonable (usually short) lifetime of use it maybe actually gets better at its job as it gets more fine debris trapped in it? What do you think?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[walkers101]

the carbon does do harm if its just left in the filter when it has expired it will release the toxins back into the water that it once soaked up

 

[kaivalagi]

Hey kaiv, what do you think happens when a "polishing pad" needs to be replaced. I've found myself thinking about that. I mean, in some ways it seems like the fine silt sort of stuff it will have picked up would seem to just keep making it a better and better filter for smaller debris. Obviously in some situations the floss pad could get totally clogged and need some squeezing out and then there are the times when a floss pad eventually can't handle any more squeeze-outs and wants to break apart, obviously crying out for replacement.

But what I was thinking about was whether during its reasonable (usually short) lifetime of use it maybe actually gets better at its job as it gets more fine debris trapped in it? What do you think?

~~waterdrop~~

Interesting point, I have keep the same pad in since the before Christmas only cleaning it once every 3 weeks if that, and haven't seen things get any worse really, but I do wonder if it reduces the overall flow of the filtration..When I first got the filter it did a wonderful job but it did have active carbon bags in there then too so hard to tell whether it was more to do with carbon or the new floss pad or indeed as it was new.

All the other filters in the canister are quite porous in comparison so don't hold back water flow as much, even when fairly "grubby" after months of usage without cleaning. In contrast the floss pads are quite restrictive to flow. When they eventually get "caked" in gunk it lowers flow rate quite substantially. If completely blocked then I am sure the water can get around the pads edges and they'll then serve no purpose other than to lower flow .

I haven't got new floss pads fitted as yet (I have a couple in stock though) as I am waiting for the new tank to be setup (this weekend hopefully) and wanted to use the old pads to clear the murky water from a new sand substrate tank before replacing them. I'll not have any clear observations to feedback on for some time now either, as you know this hobby takes a good deal of time to find things out, and with a new tank I'll be waiting even longer to understand the full floss filtering pros/cons as I'll be starting with new substrate, a much bigger volume tank and 2 filters.

I personally guess that replacing the floss once in a while (every 2 months at most, but cleaning it in tank water every 2-4 weeks) is the best route to take. With a canister filters multiple layers there is already fairly good mechanical water filtration but I am sure bits would get through if the floss is completely blocked, as the water would flow around the edges...However just replacing and not re-using the floss when it is "dirty" is a complete waste of money in my opinion - at least rinse and re-use a couple of times I'd say. A older dirty but not clogged floss filter should do the small particle filtering at least as good as a new one.

For me though I prefer higher flow rates over more efficient floss filtering which is why I haven't put 2 pads in for example - maybe I'll have the best of both worlds with 2 x ex1200's in a 5ft tank

the carbon does do harm if its just left in the filter when it has expired it will release the toxins back into the water that it once soaked up

Good point, I guess it depends on why the carbon is in there though.

If it was used to remove any toxins deliberately then yes there would be a risk to keep it in, but the chances are that it was put into the filter when starting out so will only release the same as went in which is all handleable by the bacteria in the rest of the media.


I have a couple of spare bags which I keep back until I might need them after any nasty medication requirements...so far no issues like that *touches wood*

 

[Confish]

ye ive had them in since i got it so i think i will remove them also ye im using self cut white pads. so much cheaper i usually clean my filter out each week, think i might stop doing this and do it every fortnight i rinse the white pad out and re use then replace when needed i might use 2 white pads when i remover the carbon bags? or would the first white pad just make the lsat one useless?


also about the caking being good as its like a barrier kinda thing, i was thinking would the small particles caking bit slowly break down and just pass through and make your water a tinted colour? just an idea

 

[waterdrop]

the carbon does do harm if its just left in the filter when it has expired it will release the toxins back into the water that it once soaked up

The wording of this statement could be a little misleading. Here's a link that should take you into the good scientific discussion that Bignose had of this a long time ago. The whole thread its in is probably good.

Link

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kaivalagi]

ye ive had them in since i got it so i think i will remove them also ye im using self cut white pads. so much cheaper i usually clean my filter out each week, think i might stop doing this and do it every fortnight i rinse the white pad out and re use then replace when needed i might use 2 white pads when i remover the carbon bags? or would the first white pad just make the lsat one useless?


also about the caking being good as its like a barrier kinda thing, i was thinking would the small particles caking bit slowly break down and just pass through and make your water a tinted colour? just an idea

The only thing I really worry about is rinsing the floss pads once in a while in tank water after a water change, that's it. I has had the filter running since late October and have only cleaned it once, and all I did then was move the trays out, empty out the water and junk, then put all all back together, I left the foam media etc well alone. I don't plan on cleaning the filter like this more than once every 3 months or so.

Tinted water normally comes from tannins in wood not from rubbish in the filter, I wouldn't worry too much about cleaning it to be honest, only if you see noticeably lower flow rates etc would I be concerned

 

[kiriyama]

Hi, is it possible to use more than one floss pad ? Would it not retrict the water flow, I find that the pads need replaced quite frquently, I have tried the rinse and squeeze but have found they just fall apart which is a shame because I'm sure they must also contain some useful bacteria when clogging up.
I wont tell you how mines is laid out or whats in it

 

[walkers101]

the carbon does do harm if its just left in the filter when it has expired it will release the toxins back into the water that it once soaked up

The wording of this statement could be a little misleading. Here's a link that should take you into the good scientific discussion that Bignose had of this a long time ago. The whole thread its in is probably good.

Link

~~waterdrop~~

thanks waterdrop thats basically what i meant

 

[OldMan47]

Having the polishing part of a filter start to pick up a coating of fine particles will indeed make the filter work to remove ever smaller particles. Rather than rely on the dirt build to give you the desired minimum particle size, I find it better to choose the correct filter media as my polisher. What happens when you get the finer filtration from a dirty filter is that the filter removes a larger part of the dirt that goes through it, but the flow going through the filter can drop dramatically. The end result, from a partly plugged filter is that it cleans less well although the fraction of tank water going through the filter does indeed emerge cleaner than on a new filter. If you had almost crystal clear water and wanted to improve particulate filtration, in the hope of removing all visible particles, you could get a bit of a boost by using a finer filter material, or even by doubling up on the polishing pad. The problem would be that cleaning the filter would need to be done much more often than usual in order to keep any decent filter flow at all.