change or clean filter?
- Thread starter jev99
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I believe those are the filters that contain carbon- is that correct? If so, you'll have to replace them eventually as they're really difficult to clean and it's not ideal to keep the same carbon in the tank forever.
Therefore, you can replace those filters with the same ones, scrap them altogether, make your own filters from mesh/felt, or use carbon in a media bag or reactor- all of those last options will save you money compared with buying the filters from coralife, which I believe are around $4 per filter.
In terms of the bacteria on the filter, while there is some, assuming you have enough live rock in your tank during your cycle, you're fine to remove!
Therefore, you can replace those filters with the same ones, scrap them altogether, make your own filters from mesh/felt, or use carbon in a media bag or reactor- all of those last options will save you money compared with buying the filters from coralife, which I believe are around $4 per filter.
In terms of the bacteria on the filter, while there is some, assuming you have enough live rock in your tank during your cycle, you're fine to remove!
Okay thank you. That is very helpful. truthfully I am unsure if this stock filter has carbon in it. I know that coral life sells replacements online but they also don't say if they have carbon in it or not.
But more importantly removing that filter and replacing with a brand-new one will not hurt my good bacteria count and spike ammonia or nitrite levels, correct?
what you do with the filter and the sandbed bacteria will never affect the cycling ability of the tank, its solely the live rock that we work to preserve in our tank move and tank cleaning threads. Take that literally: if you removed the sand and the filter and never put them back, your tank keeps as many fish as it would keep with them, it handles ammonia just the same as with them, that's how powerful reef live rock is once its cycled. sandbed bac and filter bac are mere extra's, we've been studying what the true bare minimums are to keep a reef running for a couple decades now online/long past guessing and into setting up a million pico reefs.
this gives you lots of room to choose how you'd like to proceed on cleaning your nano
rinse the filters, dont rinse, rinse them in tap, remove them, rinse them in peroxide, all the same.
you can't uncycle your tank by cleaning.
the hardest concept for most reefers to grasp (or agree to) is the fact that removing extra surface area never makes core surface area lacking.
In our sand rinse thread, we've even had reefers move tanks, remove the sandbed so they're bare bottom in the new tank, move the rocks and add more fish than they started with. That's how powerful a stack of activated reef live rock is inside a tank.
the rock is the best baddest filter you'll ever have.
telling you this isn't to start reef anarchy
its useful
such as: what if one day you mess up, dump in too much food, and get cyano that blankets everything.
do you buy chemiclean and vibrant and begin a 4 mos change in your water params to kill a target? withholding feed, so its not compounded any more... what about the original waste all packed in from the initial feeding, it needs to be dealt with eventually-mistakes in nano reefing sometimes require action.
alternate= you can use the known rules of reef tank access and just deep clean the whole system, preserve bacteria on the rocks, and proceed onward in the clean state. do not take four months, and emerge with a clean reef vs a packed up one. knowing how far you can safely clean a reef really helps you extend its life to the max, is why i posted all that
this gives you lots of room to choose how you'd like to proceed on cleaning your nano
rinse the filters, dont rinse, rinse them in tap, remove them, rinse them in peroxide, all the same.
you can't uncycle your tank by cleaning.
the hardest concept for most reefers to grasp (or agree to) is the fact that removing extra surface area never makes core surface area lacking.
In our sand rinse thread, we've even had reefers move tanks, remove the sandbed so they're bare bottom in the new tank, move the rocks and add more fish than they started with. That's how powerful a stack of activated reef live rock is inside a tank.
the rock is the best baddest filter you'll ever have.
telling you this isn't to start reef anarchy
its useful
such as: what if one day you mess up, dump in too much food, and get cyano that blankets everything.
do you buy chemiclean and vibrant and begin a 4 mos change in your water params to kill a target? withholding feed, so its not compounded any more... what about the original waste all packed in from the initial feeding, it needs to be dealt with eventually-mistakes in nano reefing sometimes require action.
alternate= you can use the known rules of reef tank access and just deep clean the whole system, preserve bacteria on the rocks, and proceed onward in the clean state. do not take four months, and emerge with a clean reef vs a packed up one. knowing how far you can safely clean a reef really helps you extend its life to the max, is why i posted all that
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Awesome, thank you. On that note how often should I be changing or cleaning these filters?
Currently the only media I have is Phospha Zorb because my phosphates were a little high creating a lot of algae. It took the phosphates down from .7 to .2. Still not as low as I want them but manageable.
My ammonia is down to almost 0 as is my nitrites. Nitrates running at about seven
thanks again everyone!! You guys are great with helping new reefers out and we all appreciate it You guys are great at helping new reefers out and we all appreciate it.
Currently the only media I have is Phospha Zorb because my phosphates were a little high creating a lot of algae. It took the phosphates down from .7 to .2. Still not as low as I want them but manageable.
My ammonia is down to almost 0 as is my nitrites. Nitrates running at about seven
thanks again everyone!! You guys are great with helping new reefers out and we all appreciate it You guys are great at helping new reefers out and we all appreciate it.
So I'll give two answers on the frequency
If you decide to run carbon in this tank, most people replace it every 2-4 weeks.
If you decide to run mechanical filtration such as a piece of felt (as in the one you currently have) or filter floss or even a filter sock, the ideal time to change them is every couple of days. This is if you are looking to remove large organics from the water column before they can break down to reduce your phosphate/nitrate levels. If you are looking just to "polish" your water, which is to say remove all the floating crud you can see with your naked eye, then you can go longer. After about 5-7 days, the filters will actually retain organic matter that rots (as it can't be removed via water changes), so your nutrients can actually go up compared with running no filter (the so called "nitrate trap"). You may or may not still get some filtering, assuming any pores are not clogged saturated at this point.
Just remember, the changes you'll get from running them too little or too long aren't really that important in the grand shceme of things- it's not to say it doesn't matter, but your water change frequency on a tank this size will have much more of an impact compared to how often you change this filter
If you decide to run carbon in this tank, most people replace it every 2-4 weeks.
If you decide to run mechanical filtration such as a piece of felt (as in the one you currently have) or filter floss or even a filter sock, the ideal time to change them is every couple of days. This is if you are looking to remove large organics from the water column before they can break down to reduce your phosphate/nitrate levels. If you are looking just to "polish" your water, which is to say remove all the floating crud you can see with your naked eye, then you can go longer. After about 5-7 days, the filters will actually retain organic matter that rots (as it can't be removed via water changes), so your nutrients can actually go up compared with running no filter (the so called "nitrate trap"). You may or may not still get some filtering, assuming any pores are not clogged saturated at this point.
Just remember, the changes you'll get from running them too little or too long aren't really that important in the grand shceme of things- it's not to say it doesn't matter, but your water change frequency on a tank this size will have much more of an impact compared to how often you change this filter
Also, be careful with your Phospha Zorb Your rock is likely leaching phosphates (assuming you use RODI water for your top off/salt), so that likely explained the high phosphate level at first, however as that decreases, it's possible to drop your phosphate down to 0. That can be much worse than a high phosphate level, so just keep that in mind.
Your rock is likely leaching phosphates (assuming you use RODI water for your top off/salt), so that likely explained the high phosphate level at first, however as that decreases, it's possible to drop your phosphate down to 0. That can be much worse than a high phosphate level, so just keep that in mind.yes I am testing phosphates every other day and will remove that media as soon as it gets that low. but that explanation helped a lot. thank you very much
yes, using ro/di water from now on but did not at first
yes, using ro/di water from now on but did not at first
thank youSo I'll give two answers on the frequency
If you decide to run carbon in this tank, most people replace it every 2-4 weeks.
If you decide to run mechanical filtration such as a piece of felt (as in the one you currently have) or filter floss or even a filter sock, the ideal time to change them is every couple of days. This is if you are looking to remove large organics from the water column before they can break down to reduce your phosphate/nitrate levels. If you are looking just to "polish" your water, which is to say remove all the floating crud you can see with your naked eye, then you can go longer. After about 5-7 days, the filters will actually retain organic matter that rots (as it can't be removed via water changes), so your nutrients can actually go up compared with running no filter (the so called "nitrate trap"). You may or may not still get some filtering, assuming any pores are not clogged saturated at this point.
Just remember, the changes you'll get from running them too little or too long aren't really that important in the grand shceme of things- it's not to say it doesn't matter, but your water change frequency on a tank this size will have much more of an impact compared to how often you change this filter
the filter says it uses carbon if that matters
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