What To Do With Filter Media

[Kay1123]

When treating with a med that says to remove the media what should be done to try to preserve it? If anything...

 

[raptorrex]

humm what med are you using? it is often stated to remove any carbon section when medicating, but i must admit that removing all the filter media is a new one on me. keeping it alive is a case of both feeding and providing oxygen. so i guess if you put it in a small tank of "tank water" and switch it on it should be ok for a few hours. to be honest i could do with some more info!

 

[Kay1123]

Sorry I guess I should have given more...

I have a Whisper Power Filter. Where if you remove the filter you're basically taking everything out except a sponge that sits in front of the filter.

This isn't a pressing issue at the moment, just want info for later.

 

[DarkEntity]

What it means is when treating with meds remove the carbon pads from the filter, not everything. No meds will ever tell you to remove all filtration

 

[The-Wolf]

on your filter you should remove the biobag and leave the other sponge in,
personally I'd also replace the biobag with some floss to help keep the small particulates
being filtered out.

 

[Kay1123]

Okay so what about older filters (still a Whisper I believe) that only uses a biobag. No sponge. I'm using it for a small 5 gallon. Should I just upgrade to a better filter?

 

[The-Wolf]

in my opinion yes.
if the filter only has a biobag then evertime you change that you are
effectively starting a new filter and starting the cycle process all over again.

 

[TigerLotus]

I have the same Filter as you on my 45 gallon, and a top fin 20 on my 20 gallon(uses only carbon). I came across the same probem when treating with medication and had issues with water parameters during and after treatment. If your looking for a HOB power filter I have to suggest aqua clear. It use 3 types of filter media and there all very inexpensive. It uses a sponge on the bottom, carbon in the middle and bio mass on top. When you take out the carbon for meds you still have the bio mass and sponge full of bacteria. i kept the other filters on there to just to add in filtration and to help in sucking out meds since its basically a cabon filter.

Good luck

 

[LauraFrog]

I had a tank die and I had to get a new one, I had two fish to keep alive at the time. I put them in a large plastic bin (we had to take the old tank to exchange it) and filled it with water. I put the filter media, plants, bag containing the gravel and the ornaments in there as well. I had no time to do a fishless cycle, but I put the old media in the new tank, set it up and did a 40% water change every day. I did that for a week to dodge cycle spikes because I have no way of testing to know when the ammonia's getting high.. Both the fish were fine. (Platy and bristlenose, both pretty tough but I still would have killed them if the filter media had uncycled itself in a day without filtration or aeration.)

I suppose the real issue would be the ammonia supply though - nothing can live without food and cycle bacteria eat ammonia. I had the media in the same box as the fish it had been cleaning up after so they would have supplied it with enough. Would it be important to put ammonia in with the filter media?

Oh, and do you have to take biorings out of the tank if you're medicating? I've never had to dose the whole tank. So no clue here!