Never change the biomedia (ceramic rings) in your filter. NEVER. There is absolutely no reason to, and if you throw out your old biomedia and replace it with new stuff then you are throwing out all the good bacteria and you will have to re-cycle the tank. Sometimes pet stores tell you that you need to change the filter media only so they can (conveniently) sell you more of it and make $$$. It's hogwash. You may need to change the sponge part of it with some regularity, that's fine as its primary purpose is just to remove physical debris. But the ceramic biomedia, whose purpose is to grow your beneficial filter bacteria, should not ever be changed.
All you need to do with the biomedia is rinse it off if it starts to get gunk on it. When you rinse, be sure you are rinsing it either with tank water, or else with tap water
that has already been dechlorinated. If you rinse it with water straight from the tap, the chlorine/chloramine in your water can kill the bacteria which is the last thing you want to do.
Is that clear?
Two other quick thoughts:
1. You said you used water "conditioner." There are a lot of products out there sold as water conditioners. Some also remove chlorine & chloramine, but some don't. Check the label. Does it say it removes both chlorine and chloramine? If it doesn't, then it's worthless. Get one that does. The one that has the best reputation, IMO, is
Seachem Prime, which most reputable aquarium shops will have in stock. (Another Canadian online source for it
here.) There are other brands that make similar products too. Just be sure whatever you are using says explicitly that it detoxifies both chlorine and chloramine, because sometimes there are things sold as "water conditioners" that do not dechlorinate at all, but are really nothing more than blackwater extracts or fish slime coat promoters or whatever. Or some dechlorinators can handle chlorine only, but not chloramine. Unless you know with 100% certainty what your municipality uses for water treatment, that is taking a huge risk. What you need is a comprehensive dechlorinator that handles both options. Besides doing that, Prime also detoxifies heavy metals and binds ammonia/nitrite into non-toxic forms that render it harmless to your fish but still usable by filter bacteria. It's great stuff. A 250 ml bottle will cost you under $10 Canadian and last you for probably 2+ years worth of water changes.
2. In general, there is no need to add salt to a freshwater aquarium. If you use tap water for your water changes then there are already low levels of salt ions in the water and that is more than adequate enough for most fishes needs. This point (the issue of salt addition to freshwater tanks) is somewhat debated in the hobby so you'll likely get different people expressing different opinions on the question.
