Hi all! I currently run a HOB tidal 110 on a 75G freshwater. It's been running since mid December. On Jan. 30 there was a fluval fx2 canister setup. How long do I need to let the canister run before ditching the HOB? TIA The canister has not been cleaned since being setup.
Removing HOB Question
- Thread starter CfishGo
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Couple of months. The way to do it would be to take all the filter media from the HOB and put it in the canister. Then you could have removed the HOB on day 1. If there is capacity in the canister you can still do that.
BBradbury
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Hello. If you're an aggressive water changer like me, you can change out filters at any time. You'll be removing some of the beneficial bacteria, but this bacteria grows on all surfaces of the inside of the tank and grows very quickly to replace what has been removed. The aggressive water changes also remove the harmful nitrogen from the water well before it can cause a problem for your fish.
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Airborne 82nd
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"Hi all! I currently run a HOB tidal 110 on a 75G freshwater. It's been running since mid December. On Jan. 30 there was a fluval fx2 canister setup. How long do I need to let the canister run before ditching the HOB? TIA The canister has not been cleaned since being setup."
If I am reading this correctly you are still running both filsters. Just do what Aiken said only remove the same amount of media from the fx2 trays as you have in the tidal put the media from the tidal in the trays you emptied from the fx2. Put the fx2 back together. Remove the 110 your done.
@ Aiken Am I missing something? I understand there will be some loss of BB from the media removed from the fx2. But will it be enough to crash the cycle?
If I am reading this correctly you are still running both filsters. Just do what Aiken said only remove the same amount of media from the fx2 trays as you have in the tidal put the media from the tidal in the trays you emptied from the fx2. Put the fx2 back together. Remove the 110 your done.
@ Aiken Am I missing something? I understand there will be some loss of BB from the media removed from the fx2. But will it be enough to crash the cycle?
Any time you remove established media there you are setting your cycle back some. Running 2 filters until one "cycles" will lead you to a position where each filter is doing half the work, and when you remove the old filter your new filter will need to take up the slack and your cycle will need to catch up until the one filter can do all the work. This might take a few days to a week.
Once both filters have been running for a couple of months they are probably going to be roughly equally cycled. The microbial colony in the old filter will have died back to doing half the work, and the microbial colony in the new filter will have established to doing half the work. So swapping half established media from the old filter to the new filter that also has half established media probably doesn't achieve much.
The time to move the media from the old filter to the new is day 1 when it's fully established, then fill any spare capacity in the new filter. The only reason to not do this would be if you planned on using the old filter or media elsewhere.
I actually need to do this shortly as my Fluval 406 canister is broken. I've got it all together again and it's functioning, but I'm not convinced the next time I take it apart for maintenance I'll be able to get it back together. The cost of parts to repair the filter are comparable with a new filter, so my plan is to just get a new filter. I was planning on replacing it when the 08 series released, but that's probably another 2 to 3 years, so I'll get a 407. My plan is to just swap the media into the new filter and just replace it. I'll then gradually swap the old sponges for the new over the following months.
Removing some media shouldn't crash a cycle. I suppose it's down to your definition of "crash", but i would use the word to say you completely (or almost completely) lose your cycle. Completely replacing all your filter media in one go, washing the media in chlorinated water, or having your filter break down and stop running for a number of days would cause your cycle to crash. Replacing some filter media will just set your cycle back a bit and need a bit of time to catch up again.
