How to replace media and filter floss?

[santeeeyyy]

Hey I have a canister filter and I was wondering. How would one go about replacing the inside media. There’s ceramic and then I think it’s foam and also carbon bags. Would I replace all of it at once or slowly replace. I heard canister filters are ammonia traps and it is a three stage system as well.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Hey I have a canister filter and I was wondering. How would one go about replacing the inside media. There’s ceramic and then I think it’s foam and also carbon bags. Would I replace all of it at once or slowly replace. I heard canister filters are ammonia traps and it is a three stage system as well.

First we need to know what filter it is, second media usually does not need replacement just cleaning in discharged tank water while doing a water change. If you follow the 1 pound per gallon rule or close to it, and your tank has been running for a good while, most of the biological filtration is in the rock. That being said I would not change everything at once.

 

[Idech]

Ceramic and foams are cleaned, not discarded. If you need them for biomedia, don’t clean them both at the same time. Wait 3-4 weeks in between.

Carbon needs to be replaced every few weeks/months, depending on the brand. If you have tangs in the tank, you should not be running carbon regularly as it can cause HLLE.

 

[Reef.]

The carbon is unknown really when it exhausts, some change weekly some monthly some go longer, foam if it’s the reusable type, most likely and not filter floss, just rinse in used tank water when you do a water change, food etc starts to break down after a couple of days, so every 2-3 days is ideal, but if your nitrates are low you can go a little longer, if you want to up your nitrates, if too high, rinse more often, ceramic rinse in old tank water when it looks like it is collecting detritus.

 

[santeeeyyy]

idk, my foam and ceramic is like disintegrating,

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Rinse the foam and ceramic media in used tank water as others said. Certain ceramic type media does breakdown. Try to leave some old when replacing new, same thing with the sponge. Unless it is really bad, you don’t want bits of foam floating around where your animals can eat them or clogging up anything. Hopefully, you have a bit of live rock in your tank also.

 

[ErikVR]

Ceramic and foams are cleaned, not discarded. If you need them for biomedia, don’t clean them both at the same time. Wait 3-4 weeks in between.

Carbon needs to be replaced every few weeks/months, depending on the brand. If you have tangs in the tank, you should not be running carbon regularly as it can cause HLLE.

No harm in cleaning them at the same time. The foam is purely there for mechanical filtration. You can't clean the form too often or too well. Also no harm in vigorously washing it under running tap water. You need to get the particulates out.

The ceramic media is what houses the bacteria and should be washed in tank water that you remove during water changes. You don't wash this under tap water because that can contain chlorine and other elements that kill bacteria. No need to scrub the ceramic media down. Just rinse in tank water that you dispose of afterwards.

 

[Idech]

The foam is purely there for mechanical filtration.

I don’t agree. You can start a new tank without any ammonia spike just by using a sponge or filter floss or other mechanical media that’s big enough. The bacteria doesn’t discriminate in where it goes, as long as it’s porous.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I don’t agree. You can start a new tank without any ammonia spike just by using a sponge or filter floss or other mechanical media that’s big enough. The bacteria doesn’t discriminate in where it goes, as long as it’s porous.

I'm not a scientist but I play one on tv, you are absolutely correct. In the fresh water world, people with large multiple tanks often run there tanks large and small off of just Sponge filters alone no other filtration.

 

[Idech]

I'm not a scientist but I play one on tv, you are absolutely correct. In the fresh water world, people with large multiple tanks often run there tanks large and small off of just Sponge filters alone no other filtration.

Ok, now you have to tell us. What tv show ?

 

[ErikVR]

I don’t agree. You can start a new tank without any ammonia spike just by using a sponge or filter floss or other mechanical media that’s big enough. The bacteria doesn’t discriminate in where it goes, as long as it’s porous.

Compared to the amount of bacteria in the bio media this is completely negligible. Youre talking about a sponge filter. They are much more dense than the stuff in canisters. In the freshwater hobby, where most of the canister filters are used, the vast majority of us rinse the foam components of our canisters. Been doing it for 15+ years. Getting the gunk out is much more important than the tiny amount of bacteria it removes.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Ok, now you have to tell us. What tv show ?

I was being funny lol!

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Compared to the amount of bacteria in the bio media this is completely negligible. Youre talking about a sponge filter. They are much more dense than the stuff in canisters. In the freshwater hobby, where most of the canister filters are used, the vast majority of us rinse the foam components of our canisters. Been doing it for 15+ years. Getting the gunk out is much more important than the tiny amount of bacteria it removes.

Your statement was "The foam is purely there for mechanical filtration." @Idech statement is correct and was only in regards to this. As far as to your vast majority statement I don't agree. It maybe easier and faster but many of us fresh water keepers use discarded tank water or add prime to a bucket of water to clean our sponges. The sponges do pull double duty and is an important biological filter.

 

[brandon429]

Any reef tank on this entire site can instantly remove its canister filter and if hooked to a seneye, the biofiltration rates won’t change (because live rock is always enough)


that’s instant, full complete removal and never putting it back (reef tanks aren’t lacking surface area that the filter was making up for)

so knowing that detail, that no reef tank here needs a canister filter full of surface area: what would it matter how you cleaned it

if you boiled all the media for nine days, it still wouldnt be as harsh as taking the filter away, and nothing would change in the tank. The only thing that mattered is that cloudy brown waste water doesn’t get pumped back into the tank. These things are a liability to the reef, they aren’t an integral link in performance for any reef tank. Don’t think the bacteria inside them matter, they don’t.

example of liability= someone is gone on vacation, a power outage happens. The bacteria in the filter die and rot over several hours, power restores, filthy brown waste water is pumped back into the tank with nobody home to pre clean it

if you rinsed all the media in tap water absolutely nothing you can measure with a test kit is going to change.

 

[brandon429]

If this is used on a quarantine setup that may matter (those lack surface area) but not in a system with rocks in the display.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

If this is used on a quarantine setup that may matter (those lack surface area) but not in a system with rocks in the display.

Agreed, That was kinda why I responded to this, to correct a blanket statement of sponges purely for mechanical filtration.