New member here, with a filter question!

[csmock]

Hello everyone!

I just joined earlier this week, and I look forward to meeting all of you at upcoming events. I do have a quick filter/water question.

I set up a 65g tank, and currently have a Fluval405 running on it. The tank is cycled, and I have a few cichlids, several danios, and two multi-cats currently in the tank. My Nitrates are around 30ppm and I plan on doing a 30% water change tomorrow afternoon.

My question is, how often do you change the media in the filters? I realize that is where most of the beneficial bacteria are growing, so I dont want to disturb that, but also want to make sure I have the water conditions as good as possible.

There is a very slight "haze" to the water right now. Most people wouldn't notice it, but I can definitely see it isnt quite as crystal clear as it has been.

I am trying to not overfeed the fish, but they are being very picky. I have the sinking pellets New Life Spectrum food, and some floating pellets (Hikari Cichlid Staple). I try to remove any uneaten food, but the sinking pellets arent always easy to get (The syn multi get a lot of those).

Also I have read that you should rinse out the sponges in the tank water? Does that literally mean, shake them out in the tank? I see how that helps keep the biological stuff in the cycle, but it also seems like it would keep all the "gunk" too?

Sorry for such a long winded post.... thanks in advance for any insight you might have.

~Chad

[Lotsapetsgarfhts]

Chad,
Welcome to the club.

The Fluval should be fine for that tank unless you really load it up. If you are going to add something an air powered sponge filter hidden behind some rocks or driftwood is not a bad idea in case the Fluval fails. I have had all kinds of power filters, cannister filters and power heads fail to restart after a power failure, but the airpumps always come through when the power comes back on.

I would suggest getting some flake food for the danios they are probably having a hard time with the pellets unless they are very small.

That slight haze you see is the tank finishing cycling it should clear up with a water change but make it a small one or you might set things back some. Sometimes you will think a tank is cycled and it goes through the whole thing again but usually it's not as bad as the first time as a matter of fact having a slight haze makes me think that is what happened.

When you want to rinse the sponges siphon water into a fish bucket and rinse them out in there, then top off the tank with some fresh declorinated water. I usually do the filter sponges when I do water changes so that I can use water from the aquarium.

John

[Jeffrom]

First I want to commend you on wanting to do everything right to keep your fish alive. I wish everyone had the same mindset.

Your issue is why I always prefer to run 2 filters on a tank. You can clean one / replace all media and not worry because the other one is untouched. But onto your issue. When people speak of rinsing filter media out with tank water I think they usually mean to siphon some water from your tank into a bucket. Then use the bucket water to clean your media. Then dispose of the bucket water.

Once the tank is fully established I wouldn't hesitate to clean your media in a sink with water similar in temp to your tank. As long as you continually do water changes you should be fine.

Good luck.

[Kyle May]

Chad...Welcome....and these two previous posters have given you some excellent advice.
You'll be able to clean your filters and remove the detritus without harming the bacteria colony.

Kyle

[LewC]

Despite the excellent info already posted in reply to your message, no-one has answered your 1st question, it seems.

Since I'm my room is exclusively filtered by air-driven sponges and boxes, I'm not up-to-date with all the power filters and their brand names, but if you're useing a hang-on power filter, change or clean media when the outflow is noticeably lessened or water is overflowing out of the filter without passing through the media.

Good luck!

Lew

[Lotsapetsgarfhts]

Lew,
The Fluval is a cannister filter with a sponge inside one of the chambers, creamic noodles in one and probably carbon in a third unless they have changed things since I had my last one.

John

[csmock]

Thank you all for the replies!

That makes a lot more sense now, knowing I should use the water siphoned out. I plan on doing a 10G exhange today (65g tank) to get rid of some of the nitrates.

I will look into the sponge filter... that sounds like a good secondary option. Are there any types that are better than others?

Thanks again....

[csmock]

Thank you all for your replies!

I appreciate the assistance. I will definitely look at suplimenting my cannister filter with a sponge filter.

Are there any brands that happen to be better than others? I want to make sur eI get it right the first time.

Thanks again!

[Kyle May]

I'd rinse the foam, leave the ceramic tubes alone unless they are clogged with detritus,
and pitch the carbon and insert bio balls or gravel in their place. ...or maybe I pack that
container with floss.

Kyle

[LewC]

Lew,
The Fluval is a cannister filter with a sponge inside one of the chambers, creamic noodles in one and probably carbon in a third unless they have changed things since I had my last one.

John

When Chad wrote that he was worried about upsetting the biological filtration by changing/cleaning the media, I figured that it was a design that didn't included a dedicated biological filtration chamber. As far as I know, I thought Fluval might be making other types of filters now besides their classic cannister.

Chad, ignore my little foray here and follow Kyle's advice.

Lew

[Lotsapetsgarfhts]

I like to use carbon but I have also used gravel in it's place for extra biological filtration, it's pretty much what works for you though.