jim55379

I am kind of a clean freak and like to vacuum the tank/partial change at least 1 every 2 weeks. I also like to take a cloth and clean the inside glass since it is a little slimy. I also take out the power filter and heater and wash them real good with warm water (no soap of course). I also rinse out the blue charcoal and bio filte . Now that I am learning more about beneficial bacteria, I wonder if am I doing more harm than good?? Will this make the tank water stressfull to the fish. My goldfish seem to be happy afterwards??

vin

It's fine to scrape the panes of glass on the aquarium and you should clean the filter tubes and the little wheel that draws water up the tubes once a month. You can clean the media, but do it in the old tank water that your changing out and be sure not to wring it completely dry. You only want to loosen the build up, but not wash all the good stuff away....This is one sure way of making sure you're keeping the bacteria in the filter media.....and do this only if no water is coming through it....otherwise leave it alone.

Change your charcoal bag MAYBE every 6 weeks.......You want to be sure the water isn't murky and activated charcoal can absorb only so much. You'll know it's time if the water appears unusually cloudy or if an odor starts to build up.

atmmachine816

ok i dont know the type of filter you have but i have a penguin bio-wheel 200 i gravel vaccuum once a week you should too a minimum of 10% but you can do more clean the glass when it needs to and once a week i now rinse my filter cartridge in the water i just sucked out thanks to some help from here and clean my filter once a month

Jon

i wash my filter every 1-2 weeks (buy a new pad every 3-4 months), clean gravel and change 15-20% water 3 times a week and scrape when needed.

Im a little to frequent but my tank is crowded and so far no harm. Keep my tank very clean and my fish dont mind it one bit.

jim55379

Thanks for the replies..... Also I know it's not considered a replacement part but does anyone here ever buy a new bio filter. I was boiling mine to kill some ick and melted the plastic frame that it goes in. I still put the filter inside the power filter along with the blue charcoal one. On the filter there is a website called marineland.com. I wonder if I can buy a new one there. I also have an older power filter called a "regent' which didn't have a biofilter with it. I made one from a foam filter for a shop vac and it works ok. I even ran it for a long time without a bio at all, just the blue filter with no ill effects.

vin

You can buy just the filter cartridge replacement.....The problem is, that the media houses all of your good stuff...I'm not sure why you would want to boil anything away if you're treating the ich with meds......you're killing more bacteria by sterilizing.....

Try Petco, PetSmart.com, Wal-Mart for the replacements....I was just at Petco today and saw a number of replacement filter media and cartridges. (both bio media and charcoal)