changing to sand.

[hippy guy]

Sooo.. ichanged my substrate completley, was sure no sand got in filter (none did) and last night my aquaclear filter stoped, but was making a loud noise..everything was clean, don't know what was up. So I got a penguin 100, and its ggoing strong, unfortunatly, my other biofilter was dry as crap (filter stoped probobly round 3 am and I was up at noon, and filter was basically free of water) so imbasically doing a super fish in cycle... although my plants, deco, and some gravel I left had some bacteria...how screwed am I??

 

[pantherspawn]

You should still put the old media in with the new. There's a string chance that some of the bacteria survived and a little help is better than none.

 

[hippy guy]

The new one is a penguin 100, and the biofilter won't fit in there..already tried, its in a bucket of tank water till I figure somthing out, right now its all going well, and I'm prepared for daily water changes..

 

[xfactor6699]

The new one is a penguin 100, and the biofilter won't fit in there..already tried, its in a bucket of tank water till I figure somthing out, right now its all going well, and I'm prepared for daily water changes..

Can u cut it and add pieces...if not just put it in a net or pantyhose and hang it in the tank for a week or two...every bit helps

 

[pantherspawn]

Can u cut it and add pieces...if not just put it in a net or pantyhose and hang it in the tank for a week or two...every bit helps

I agree.. cut sections of the foam out and place it in front of the new media, so the water flow hits it first and then passes through to the new filter media. I do this regularly on smaller tanks and get an almost instant cycle 3/4 of the time. With the same substrate and materials as before you should have little to no spikes.

 

[hippy guy]

I can do that, I was working on a system, a baggie filled with the few rocks I kept in my tank, and put lots of holes in it and I can put old bio filter in there as well, I was going to set it up as close to filter as possible, for lots of water movement..
Btw and thoughts on the marineland penguin 100?
So far its working well, and I like the idea of a wheel of bio filtrating to help

 

[pantherspawn]

I can do that, I was working on a system, a baggie filled with the few rocks I kept in my tank, and put lots of holes in it and I can put old bio filter in there as well, I was going to set it up as close to filter as possible, for lots of water movement..
Btw and thoughts on the marineland penguin 100?
So far its working well, and I like the idea of a wheel of bio filtrating to help

I have the 100 on my ten Gallon. Works very well.

 

[pantherspawn]

Being that the penguin 100 only has 1 media slot, its best to use the cut method everytime you need to change the filter media. Just cut the sponge from the old one and place it where the water hits it first. That way you have established bacteria with every change. Just make sure you reinsert off the old carbon in tank water only.

 

[hippy guy]

Say what now? Also this is what I've done for now

 

[hippy guy]

Should I cut the biosponge out and put it in the penguin (there is a slot for somthing, other than the biowheel)?

 

[pantherspawn]

Cut the foam part of the old media. Rinse it in a bowl of tank water. Put that piece of foam in the filter behind the new foam so that the water being sucked up.number the filter hits the old cut piece first and then runs through the new one. It will cause the bacteria to transfer to the new media. Keep it in there for about 3-4 weeks and then remove it if your water parameters age all normal.

 

[pantherspawn]

Should I cut the biosponge out and put it in the penguin (there is a slot for somthing, other than the biowheel)?

Yes. The slot is where the sponge goes. You should have gotten a new one in the box with the filter. The wheel harbors bacteria and the sponge collects debris and holds bacteria. You want the bacteria yo transfer from the old sponge to the new and then pass down on to the wheel as water runs through

 

[hippy guy]

Did not get one..didn't see it on parts list..maybe that's an extra thing..well anywho, ill cut this up later tonight...

Also.. I had my old filter sitting out for about a day, and had it in a bucket with a dead ghost shrimp.. not thinking, I putred some in my tank, since I knew I treated it earlier, and now there are tiny white worms in one of my tanks (not the one with the new filter) are these just flatworms or whatever, and my fish will eat them/die off because I don't over feed?

 

[pantherspawn]

I'm not sure how you couldn't have gotten one. The filter is useless without media to catch the debris. It will just cycle through your tank over and over again.

 

[pantherspawn]

Pictures of the biowheel with media sponge.

 

[hippy guy]

Oh this filter media? I thought you were talking about an extra bio sponge that went between that and the wheel, in that spacw..my bad

 

[pantherspawn]

you want to keep this new one where it belongs. take the old one from your old filter, cut the sponge material out of it where the bacteria is, and put it in the new filter, right in front where the blue sponge is on the picture above.

 

[hippy guy]

Ok ill do that, thanks hopefully all will be well, the filter is rated for a 20, and this is a 10gal, so that's always nice lol

 

[pantherspawn]

absolutely. the more filtration the better. That filter is actually sold with marineland 10gallon setups. The 20gallon setups come with the penguin 150

 

[hippy guy]

Hey panther spawn, quick question. I woke up and my filter was buzzing loudly, and it was not pumping water.... what's going on here?! All I did to fix it was tap it a few times, but I've read taking the downstem up a bit and then setting it back in works too. Why would this happn on a new filter??