Switching Filters- Help!

[QuietPlotter]

Hello, AA!

I am here to discuss my 10 gallon aquarium. It is an all-glass model...

Filter- Aqueon Quiet Power Flow (BS)
Carbon foam pad, with spunky blue rubber things for bio and mechanical filtration.

Heater-None. Water is always 78 (Florida!) and hits 82 with the lights on all day.

Airstone-Not Needed

Fish- Three Platys, One Pleco, One Fiddler Crab. Soon getting three sparkling gouramis or one larger gourami.

Levels- Ammo 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10-20 PH 7.6

So, I just ordered the AquaClear 150 (For 30 Gallon Tanks). It's going in my 10g. Anyways, how do I do the filter swap? My 29 and 45 run Penguin and Emperor, but I put those on before adding fish and before cycling. Anyways, this is my first time changing the filter in a running tank.

This tank has been up for around 3 months.

So, I ordered the aquaclear 150 (I know. Incase you forgot). It is going to arrive Thurs or Friday. My question is, how do I do the switch?

I would run both at the same time, but the hood only has a hole for one, and I would take the hood off, but my fiddler crab would escape!

How do I do this? Should I remove the stock filter and place the pad in the AquaClear? The filter instructions/descriptions say that all the BB live on the rubber blue stuff, not the cartridge. So do you think it would be OK to run both at once? I might figure out a way.



How do I go about this? I don't want to crash my bio and kill my fish...



Thanks,




QP

 

[KonvictKeeper]

Put everything you can from the old filter into the new filter.
BTW- I'm not sure there is any kind of pleco that belongs in a 10g. What kind is it?

 

[QuietPlotter]

Pitbull

 

[QuietPlotter]

Risky. I'd rather run two... AH!!!! But if I run two for a month, how do I know when to take out the old one?

 

[KonvictKeeper]

Yeah that would probably be the best thing to do. But I'm not sure how you would know. And yes that pleco will work!

 

[QuietPlotter]

Hey, I just noticed one of my Platys has ich. Barely any, but I spot it real well. With the Pleco in the tank, how many tsp of salt can I do?

 

[KonvictKeeper]

I'm not quite sure... I've never had any diseases in my tank. It can/will be a big problem though. You don't want your whole tank infected! I'd post that on the "Sick Fish" forum and you'll probably get more responses.

 

[Aces11]

Hello, AA!

I am here to discuss my 10 gallon aquarium. It is an all-glass model...

Filter- Aqueon Quiet Power Flow (BS)
Carbon foam pad, with spunky blue rubber things for bio and mechanical filtration.

Heater-None. Water is always 78 (Florida!) and hits 82 with the lights on all day.

Airstone-Not Needed

Fish- Three Platys, One Pleco, One Fiddler Crab. Soon getting three sparkling gouramis or one larger gourami.

Levels- Ammo 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10-20 PH 7.6

So, I just ordered the AquaClear 150 (For 30 Gallon Tanks). It's going in my 10g. Anyways, how do I do the filter swap? My 29 and 45 run Penguin and Emperor, but I put those on before adding fish and before cycling. Anyways, this is my first time changing the filter in a running tank.

This tank has been up for around 3 months.

So, I ordered the aquaclear 150 (I know. Incase you forgot). It is going to arrive Thurs or Friday. My question is, how do I do the switch?

I would run both at the same time, but the hood only has a hole for one, and I would take the hood off, but my fiddler crab would escape!

How do I do this? Should I remove the stock filter and place the pad in the AquaClear? The filter instructions/descriptions say that all the BB live on the rubber blue stuff, not the cartridge. So do you think it would be OK to run both at once? I might figure out a way.

How do I go about this? I don't want to crash my bio and kill my fish...

Thanks,

QP

You can wither run the two filters at the same time for a month or two, or you can stuff all of your old media into the new filter. There's lots of room in AquaClear filters and I did the same when I switched mine. I didn't want to pop out the back of my hood to run two filters so I jammed all the media into the AquaClear.

 

[QuietPlotter]

Aces, please check your private messages. Meanwhile, everyone, I don't know how I would stuff anything but the pad into the aquaclear. Here is the filter, supposedly the BB lives on the blue. The pad is in the back...

 

[KonvictKeeper]

I think it would be fine just putting the pad in the new filter.

 

[QuietPlotter]

Can't risk killing my fish

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Just put as much as you can from the old into the new. You may get a mini cycle but nothing a couple of PWC and a few extra tests of the params won't fix. It won't kill your fish lol.

 

[QuietPlotter]

Thanks everyone! I'm planning to put the aquaclear carbon into my betta's nano filter, and run without carbon. I am gonna run both filters for a month.


Please check my carbon vs no carbon thread.


Thanks alot guys!


QP