Changing fish tank filters?

Question

I have a 75 gallon tank with some piranhas and was wondering what is better to do. Are you supposed to change the filter using the manufacture's recommendations every month or whatever or are you supposed to use the same filter just cleaning it from time to time with tank water? I heard cleaning the filter is better because it keeps the bacterial. What do you guys do? thanks

Answer 1

Most of your manufacturer reccomendations are put out there mostly to get repetitive sales from you, the consumer. The actual capability, outside of probably the carbon can be much longer then they tell you. Your typical mechanical filtration consisting of a sponge filter which holds physical material in it, can last upwards of six months. What you are talking about cleaning the filter, you'd want to rinse the sponge in a bucket of tank water you are changing. If you rinse the sponge in tap or water from the sink, you will lose most or all of your biological filtration due to chlorine in the tap water. That's why you rinse in your tank water. You'll lose some bacteria, but not nearly as much as the tap water will kill off.

A good way to retain your biological filtration when doing filter maintenence, is to keep the old sponge in the tank when you replace with a new sponge. Put the new sponge in the filter, but leave the old one still in the tank so the live culture of bacteria can migrate and help regrow into the new sponge.

Your Carbon does need to be changed out monthly. Carbon chemically "absorbs" metals and other chemical compounds in your water that are not quite so good to have in the water. It chemically bonds with it, holding it to the carbon. There is only x amount of bonding the carbon can peform before it becomes uselss.

Filters for the most part just need monthly changing of carbon, and mechanical changes in sponges about semi annually.

Answer 2

Much of this depends on the media your filter uses. For the most part the filter manufacturor would love to see you change media every month, when in many if not most cases this is not needed. Unless the media is physically deteriorating you can rinse the debris out and put it right back in. By changing all the media you are removing a major portion of your filter's nitrifying bacteria, which will cause a cycling problem with your tank.

When I was running hob power filters I ran mostly Aqua Clears. The sponges last for years, I had an old AC200 that had a sponge that was over 7 years old. Many others had sponges over 3 years old. I ran filter floss along with the sponges, that was good for a few rinses before it became plugged. The ceramic Biomax media was another one that lasted seemingly forever.

I have a friend who is running Whispers or Penguins or some other hob that uses cartridges, he was just complaining today about how he gets 3 rinses max out of them, and they are falling apart.

Answer 3

You use the same filter, you just change the media it holds. The manufacturer suggests removing the media (the floss bags that hold the carbon, foam pads, and any other media) and replacing it with new media. It is best to change part of the filter at a time so bacteria is allowed to recolonize instead of leading to a mini-cycle. If you replace half of the media one month, and the other half the next month, you will be just fine as far as clean and colonized filter are concerned. Contact me if you have any questions.

Soop Nazi

EDIT: If you are using activated carbon, it becomes useless after about a month of being in the tank. It works by attracting contaminants to "stick" to its surface. Once the carbon's surface is covered, it can no longer attract toxins, making it next to worthless...

Answer 4

changing your filter out cartridge as quickly as a month must be nice, the carbon will artwork that long, you are able to attempt rinsing the filter out off while it gets yucky. you are able to feed them much less, like as quickly as an afternoon or another day is nice and doing a 25-30% water exchange a pair of times a month is nice. To get clearer water you will get one extra filter out with a polisher pad in it to bathe your water, extra filtration could be solid for the tank to using fact your goldfish do positioned off extra ammonia then different fish do. which will preserve the blur. getting the extra filter out now could be solid to using fact in case you get one with a bio wheel (marine land) it will be extra elementary to enhance your tank while your goldfish get bigger considering you may have that valuable Bactria nonetheless on your gadget.

Answer 5

I think the carbon i.e. the activated charcoal must be changed every month. I'm not sure as to exactly why, but my guess is that is cannot do its job of absorbing harmful gasses beyond that point.