Can I add another filter to my 10 gallon?

Question

I already have a power filter that filters up to 20 gallons on it, but I've noticed that even when I do water changes with gravel vacuums, there's still a lot of stuff floating around. Sure I'll try to net it out, but it still floats around in there. Whenever I put a new cartridge in my filter, a week later, its clogged with dead food and fish waste and my filter does filter properly because of it. I guess its because I recently switched from feeding my fish flakes and bloodworms to flakes, bloodworms, brine shrimp, and tubifex, but not in one feeding. I just feed them twice a day without feeding them the same foods consecutively. Plus at night I drop a tropical tablet and an algae wafer for my cory cats and oto cats.

Do you think that adding another power filter like the one I have will reduce the clogging of my cartridges with better filtration? If so, will it have any big affects? For instance will I have to recycle my tank because of the new filter? I'll give someone a best answer

Well I have been kind of slacking on remove excess food, but I have 3 cory cats, 3 oto cats, 4 neon tetras, and 1 dwarf gourami.

Answer 1

I agree, it sounds like you are overfeeding your fish, but 10 minutes is insane! In 10 minutes, a 10 gallon fish tank could empty a small package of bloodworms! Only feed what they can eat in about 2 minutes... This will prevent excess food from getting to the bottom... I just give them some flakes in the morning, once at night, and sometimes a third time in between (a very small amount each time) and they get bloodworms weekly. This allows all the fish to get their share of food before it gets to the filter...

In your case, I think the food you are finding in the filter is likely because your filter is so strong that it sucks up the food before the fish have a chance to eat it... Try to put the floating food in the corner farthest from the filter (it will begin to drift in the current if the fish don't eat it, and eventually end up in your filter any ways...). You know how to contact me if you need to... ;~D

Soop Nazi

Answer 2

It sounds like you are overfeeding your fish. This is a common mistake. Feed only what your fish can clean up in about 10 minutes. To help keep the tank clean, I've found that keeping the water you've vacuumed out in a plastic gallon jug for a week helps restore pH, etc. The junk should settle to the bottom of the jug, just pour the water back into the tank after you've vaccuumed out another gallon.
Also, how many fish do you keep in this tank? Ten small fish would be pushing the limit. The bigger the fish, the fewer you can have. You may need a bigger tank.

Answer 3

Why? If you clean your aquarium and do one quarter water changes every week like you should, you dont need to.
Uh, by the way, how many fish do you have in it? It sounds like it's probably overstocked.