Mechanical and Organic Filter Madness

[Jacquie]

Hi There,

I'm a bit confused about mechanical filters and the good ole natural filter cycling and how to work them as a partnership.

I have a 150 litre tank with 3 axies. The filter is a fluval2 - the flow is pointing to the wall.

Every few days I test for Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate which all remain usually at a consistant '0' (Ammonia occasionally will read 0.25 - the partial weekly water change clears it) - I have individual test kits per test type. PH is consistantly 7.8

Every week I do about a 10% water change.

Do I need to change the filter fibre even if my A/N/N readings are all zero? I've read somewhere that removing the filter fibre refill pads can kill my beneficial bacteria...But leaving them in seems unhygenic. Do I change them or not? If so, how often?

...Confused....

 

[Blackhawk IV]

with my filter (also a fluval) i take out the filter fibres and clean them. i dont think you need to replace them all that often. maybe once a year? other than that if you keep the fibres relatively clean and working properly then there should not be a problem!

 

[Kal El]

Hi Jacq,

I googled your filter- Fluval 2 and got "Fluval 2 Plus Internal Filter 105GPH" but I'm sure all these filters have the same mechanistics behind them. The web page mentioned that the Fluval 2 utilises mechanical and chemical filtration. Understandably it can get rather daunting with all these mechanical filtrations, biological filtrations and then chemical filtrations but not to worry they all tie into one

Mechanical filtration is the process of passing water through a media that is designed to trap particles, subsequently removing them from the water. The media itself comes in a few forms but the most common is a sponge. I do believe this is where your question is concerned; given that's what you mean filter fibre. The media (filter fibre) can be taken out of the filter itself, and washed. However, you must wash the media out with a bucket containing the water from the tank. Do not ever use tap water because this has chlorine and chloroamine, which will instantly kill beneficial bacteria causing a restart in the nitrification cycle.
You can replace the media with a new one. Most people do it every 4-6 months (so I read). A good indication as to whether you need to replace the media is when it does not return to its original shape after you have squeezed it out in a bucket of tank water. Also, I would never recommend that you replace the media completely.

For instance, if your media is a sponge:

1. Cut the old sponge in half.
2. Cut the new sponge in half as well
3. Place both halves into the designated filter compartment

This ensures that you won't have a "mini-restart" of nitrification cycle.

Whew (hard work )...moving onto chemical filtration. According to the googled web page, Fluval 2 has a designated area for a carbon cartridge.

Chemical filtration is adsorption of chemical pollutants, dyes, medication, toxic substances, and heavy metals onto resins or granules. These resins or granules usually come in the form of zeolite or activated carbon (I think it's activated carbon for the Fluval 2). Most aquariums would advice you to replace the carbon cartridge every month but you can leave it up to 2 months (I have ). Here is a link to a more detailed discussion about chemical filtration:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?p=145300#post145300

Yes, I think that's about it...hope that helped!

Jay.

 

[Abrahm]

Washing your filter media out in either decholorinated water or old aquarium water is the best idea. It removes all the gunk but is reasonably safe for the nitryfing bacteria that are on the sponge/floss. I would not change them out completely very often but it would depend upon what they are made out of. A sponge I would use for six months or more depending upon how quickly it degraded, floss I would change out more quickly.

For instance, if your media is a sponge:

1. Cut the old sponge in half.
2. Cut the new sponge in half as well
3. Place both halves into the designated filter compartment

I'd recommend against this personally. If you cut the sponge in half so that it becomes two pieces that sit side by side then you will have water that bypasses that filtration step by just flowing through the big hole you made. You can cut it the other way, but I think the easiest thing to do would be to just change your media at different times. Change out your filter fiber and then two weeks later change out the carbon. Carbon will also hold a significant amount of nitrifying bacteria that will recolonize the new sponge.

 

[gr33neyes]

I have a fluval 2+. whenever the filter clog indicator starts to move down(indicating it needs cleaning) I just rinse all the filter media out in a bucket of tank water. Ive been running this filter for 8 months without changing the foam or other media and its working fine. Just a good rinse and squeeze out is all it needs.

 

[Jacquie]

Thanks Everyone...One more query

Thanks for your help everybody! Makes perfect sense now - I didn't want to harm or kill my little bacterias they've been doing a fabulous job against my little slobs!

The Fluval has the sponges (mechanical) and you can insert either carbon or polyester (chemical) - Jay, you've explained it better than the instruction manual ever could - Thank you so much!

I'll give the sponges a shake in the tank water if the clog indicator comes down - that takes care of the mechanical.

However for the chemical, I've been using the polyester refills. Is carbon better for axies?

If it is better, am I able to replace the polyester with the carbon? How would I go about this without disturbing my bacterias?