How often do ye change filter media?

Hi All

I was wondering if they need changing ?.

I have 3 foams. 1 black ,1 white (in the middle) and 1 green colour filter.

Do they all need changing over time ?

Hi mate,


maybe you mean the filter media? Foam pads in the filter container? If so it's best to squeeze them out in a bucket of water taken from the tank and put them back into the filter, this will keep the bacteria that removes the toxins alive.


Mark

Hi Mark , thats exactly what I meant . I have edited the post now

So when you say sqeeze them out- is this washing them in the water taken from the tank ?

The white foam in the middle is beginning to look a bit ragged.

Yeah, tank water in a bucket Keeps it alive rather than tap water as the chlorine will kill the bacteria.
The foam should no degrade too quickly, when you squeeze it out a bit it will allow a better flow rate to your filter aswell. Looks like crap but unless there is physical degredation I would always just squeeze it out.



Mark

ragged? if it's falling apart change them

If you decide to throw out the media, make sure you put it in a bucket of tank water and squeeze it out and rinse the new media in that to get some goodness on it and pop it in the filter, this will speed up things, keep an eye on water conditions while your new media takes hold, test for amonia and nitrites\nitrates until you are happy the filter is doing the job.


Mark

Most sponges will do you a very long time, the likes of filter wool would need to be changed regular. Once a month in my case but depends on your stocking. I'm very understocked.

darrencurry wrote:

ragged? if it's falling apart change them

Thats why I was wondering how long they last.

The white middle one seems to be made of a different material to the foam ans hasent lasted that long.

The black filter may be a carbon filter and needs to be changed every couple of months as the carbon tries to continue to absorb chemicals from the water after it is saturated, it can eventually begin releasing toxins that are not easily bound by the carbon.

I've removed the carbon filters in my tanks and replaced with Poly filter

ive had mine near two years and they are in as good a condition as wen bought them

Hey,

The white filter floss i rinse out every week, i change it when it starts falling apart. The black sponge (carbon filter) is not really necessary unless u are removing medicines from the tank.. u have to change it every 2-3 months. I always remove it to make space for extra bio filtration.. bio balls, ceramic bio rings or 'the green sponge'.
Iv haven't changed my bio filter media in one of my tanks for 6 years... I just rinse it out with tank water every 3-4 months.

dan wrote:

The black filter may be a carbon filter and needs to be changed every couple of months as the carbon tries to continue to absorb chemicals from the water after it is saturated, it can eventually begin releasing toxins that are not easily bound by the carbon.

I've removed the carbon filters in my tanks and replaced with Poly filter

Don,t mean to highjack thread but how true is the statement above, i have heard it before about carbon re-releasing the toxins back into the tank once it becomes saturated but heard others state that the carbon will just stop functioning once it is used up and WON,T release anything back into the tank.

Anybody got a definite answer to this???

Sounds like the middle one is floss, or a floss pad - very fine soft fibre for catching small particles. They are always the first to go because they can only catch so much before they clog up and they break apart faster. The sponges should last a while. Rather than buy the pads you can get a bag of floss for about 8 euro in most LFS (the JBL stuff is very good) which should last ages - if you are really broke you can go to dunnes and buy one of the pillows for about 3 euro (just make sure they aren't anti-bacterial and rinse it well before hand) - that'll last you a year or more.

gerryberry wrote:

dan wrote:

Anybody got a definite answer to this???

No, but... I've heard this before, but I don't know what the answer is. I've heard two different things - a, that some carbon media leaks phosphate into the tank after some time, and b, that once the carbon becomes 'saturated' it starts to leach what it has absorbed back into the tank.

I dunno, but I do tend to change any carbon media after about a month or so.

CJackson wrote:

Sounds like the middle one is floss, or a floss pad - very fine soft fibre for catching small particles. They are always the first to go because they can only catch so much before they clog up and they break apart faster. The sponges should last a while. Rather than buy the pads you can get a bag of floss for about 8 euro in most LFS (the JBL stuff is very good) which should last ages - if you are really broke you can go to dunnes and buy one of the pillows for about 3 euro (just make sure they aren't anti-bacterial and rinse it well before hand) - that'll last you a year or more.

Yip thats one thats falling apart, I was told at the time it filters out very fine particles in the water.

Is this pad necessary ? or would I get away with using the carbon and green sponge and only have two sponges in my filter.

CJackson wrote:

Sounds like the middle one is floss, or a floss pad - very fine soft fibre for catching small particles. They are always the first to go because they can only catch so much before they clog up and they break apart faster. The sponges should last a while. Rather than buy the pads you can get a bag of floss for about 8 euro in most LFS (the JBL stuff is very good) which should last ages - if you are really broke you can go to dunnes and buy one of the pillows for about 3 euro (just make sure they aren't anti-bacterial and rinse it well before hand) - that'll last you a year or more.

Hi I read your post again. What does LFS stand for?

local fish shop

mossy wrote:

local fish shop

Haha - Im giving away my rookie status.

From my understanding carbon doesn't release toxins back into the water,it will simply lose its ability to remove toxins from the water,it wont re release them. Ive seen the argument dug up every so often,but there are no conclusive tests to say that carbon releases anything back into the water.
Now having said that,I prefer to remove my carbon once meds are removed etc...I dont like running the tank with carbon all the time so have it on standby only when needed.
Gavin