Changing canister filter

[abizzle117]

Hey all, appreciate any advice here.

I was gifted a tank by my father in law. 36 gallon, came with his old Marineland canister filter. I've had it up and running for about a year and a half now. 4 fish, snails and hermits and a tuxedo urchin. I have about 30lbs of live rock. Small protein skimmer which doesn't do an amazing job. Aside from some hair algae, everything is fine.

Well my canister filtering started leaking. And while I replaced the o-ring when I first got it, it looks like even replacement parts are now discontinued. I have a new canister filter on the way. Should I definitely transfer whatever I can to the new one? It has some cermaic tubes, bioballs, carbon filters. Does it matter? Is this stuff doing anything other than mechanical filtering?

Appreciate it in advance. Thank you.

 

[FishTruck]

No filter floss or pads?

If you were changing the carbon regularly, put in new carbon and change it regularly. If the carbon is a year old, it was doing nothing. Just omit it for now. Keep everything else.

What was your routine to maintain the can?

 

[abizzle117]

Thanks.

There's a polishing pad, ceramic rings bio balls, carbon bags, and a porous black foam. I also added some phosguard.

I used to keep up with everything in terms of carbon bags and polishing pads. Recently I've been changing out the carbon bags about once every 3 months and I throw in a new polishing pad when I do that. Never changed the porous foam. When I open the filter, I pour the water out into a bucket and shake every layer in the water to release sediment and gunk. Then close it back up and let it fill with new water.

The carbon bags are new now. The leaking started right after I changed them out. I've tried to reset everything multiple times but I think the seal is just gone.

So I'll keep the ceramics and bioballs. Big porous foam too maybe? Thanks for the reply.

 

[abizzle117]

No filter floss or pads?

If you were changing the carbon regularly, put in new carbon and change it regularly. If the carbon is a year old, it was doing nothing. Just omit it for now. Keep everything else.

What was your routine to maintain the can?

I replied above but should also note, my new canister will be a different brand. I think mostly what I care about is whether removing these items from the system will cause any ecological impact to the tank balance. Don't care about much else.

 

[FishTruck]

I think you’ll be just fine with new pads and carbon… saving the other stuff.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I'm not a fan of bioballs and ceramics and foams, they become detritus traps. And the rocks are the bio filter of the tank anyway, so extra bio media doesn't offer any extra benefit.

 

[abizzle117]

Deleted

 

[abizzle117]

Appreciate both of the replies. I'll likely see what space I have for extra media in the new canister and keep what I can.