1 piece silly filter cartridge

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

patagonia

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
376
Location
toronto
well...my filter is a corner filter i think...and it has a rectangular 1 piece unit that acording to the manufacture's instructions should be changed every 2-4 weeks...the thing is i am on week one of cycling my tank...and when the time to replace it comes...i have to discard the whole thing and put a new one...it has a polyfiber pad (blue) on top and activated charcoal at the bottom...wouldnt i be throwing away A WHOLE LOT of beneficial bacteria along with it??? i would have to start the whole cycling process all over again everytime wouldnt i??? i wanna keep the polyfiber pad but i need to replace the activated charcoal...any suggestions??? thaaanks!!! :wink:
 
You don't really need carbon in a well maintained tank, so you can ignore the instructions to change out the carbon <only exception is if you have used the carbon to take out meds, etc.>

2nd option is to cut a hole in the carbon part & dump out the carbon. Depending on your filter, you may be able to put a mesh bag of carbon in. Now you just made youself a 2 piece filter & be able to change the carbon & the pad independently! :D
 
Are you using the filter in a qt? The carbon will only absorb stuff for a short amount of time. After something like a week, it is basically useless. The filter cartridges in my hob have carbon too, but I dont throw any of it away. I just rinse the whole thing in the water I used from a water change and put it back.
 
Instead of throwing it away, just rinse it out in used tank water. Think about it this way. The manufacturer makes money by selling their product. If they tell you to replace it every 2 weeks, you will buy new pads every 2 weeks, thus giving them more money.

As Meredith said, the charcoal only works for about a week. After that it's useless and only collects bacteria. During the cycling stage, do NOT mess with the filter in any way. Do not even rinse it off.
 
Back
Top Bottom