Today I did something that was long overdue - changing the main, long-term filter pads in my Fluval 2-Plus filter. One of the pads is still going quite well after 3 years since I last replaced it, but the other pad I have replaced in a bit of a mish-mash kind of way. I ended up with two halves on the one side, and neither of them have lasted very well (~1 year, getting quite thin and holey).
Today, I put in a new half of a pad and removed about half of one of those old halves - so basically I removed about a quarter of the two old halves that are falling apart and kept the remaining quarter and squished it together with the old half that I kept (I was worried about filter flow, but it's as strong as ever). I'm just too nervous to replace a whole half of a pad, and think this way is better because I lose as little filter bacteria as possible while waiting for the new filter media to be seeded. I could probably have kept the entirety of the half I cut up, but thought it best not to squish those two halves together too much (even now I'm still a little nervous in case I've created anaerobic pockets in the filter media in case that causes any issues). I did change the filter floss as well, but most times those pads only last a week and then start to fluff up when I try to clean them (and it probably wouldn't have had much in the way of filter bacteria on it to begin with).
Still, it had to be done...it might save me time when cleaning the tank, since I must normally spend 10-20 minutes positioning the two old halves so that they provide enough coverage (which they probably weren't, and I was never ever satisfied anyway, what with my OCD).
Should everything be fine without me needing to take any further action, such as additional water changes? I perform a 50% each week on the same day as I clean the filter and mess with the plants - so that was this morning - and the next one is next Sunday. I have been learning to calm down and not to mess about too much with the tank, and to leave things be instead of obsessing and poking about, and my goal is to just leave the tank until next weekend now. With only three White Cloud Mountain Minnows and ~46-50 litres of water in the tank (and live plants), I don't expect (or hope for) there to be any complications or any need for me to do anything else before next weekend. I'm even keeping away from ammonia and nitrite tests since I spent plenty of time earlier in the year doing them almost every other day, worrying all the time about what might cause ammonia/nitrite spikes and jumping at any little thing.
Today, I put in a new half of a pad and removed about half of one of those old halves - so basically I removed about a quarter of the two old halves that are falling apart and kept the remaining quarter and squished it together with the old half that I kept (I was worried about filter flow, but it's as strong as ever). I'm just too nervous to replace a whole half of a pad, and think this way is better because I lose as little filter bacteria as possible while waiting for the new filter media to be seeded. I could probably have kept the entirety of the half I cut up, but thought it best not to squish those two halves together too much (even now I'm still a little nervous in case I've created anaerobic pockets in the filter media in case that causes any issues). I did change the filter floss as well, but most times those pads only last a week and then start to fluff up when I try to clean them (and it probably wouldn't have had much in the way of filter bacteria on it to begin with).
Still, it had to be done...it might save me time when cleaning the tank, since I must normally spend 10-20 minutes positioning the two old halves so that they provide enough coverage (which they probably weren't, and I was never ever satisfied anyway, what with my OCD).
Should everything be fine without me needing to take any further action, such as additional water changes? I perform a 50% each week on the same day as I clean the filter and mess with the plants - so that was this morning - and the next one is next Sunday. I have been learning to calm down and not to mess about too much with the tank, and to leave things be instead of obsessing and poking about, and my goal is to just leave the tank until next weekend now. With only three White Cloud Mountain Minnows and ~46-50 litres of water in the tank (and live plants), I don't expect (or hope for) there to be any complications or any need for me to do anything else before next weekend. I'm even keeping away from ammonia and nitrite tests since I spent plenty of time earlier in the year doing them almost every other day, worrying all the time about what might cause ammonia/nitrite spikes and jumping at any little thing.
