duanea

Hi!

im just wondering when/how often should I change my filter? I have a 54Litre tank with a biologic, carbon and mechanical sponge. my tank has been set up for about 4 weeks. do I need to replace the filter media or can I just leave the same ones in?

Thanks!

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

The biological and mechanical can be swished around in a bowl of tank water weekly when you do a partial water change. The carbon should be replaced weekly, but I recommend only using carbon when it's needed to remove meds. When carbon wears out, it releases whatever it captured into the tank.

duanea

Thanks for the reply! So should I just take the carbon filter out altogether or replace it? Or put an additional biologic or mechanical filter in the gap it will leave in the filter? sorry just dont want to get anything wrong!

COBettaCouple

Well, I recommend not using carbon except when you need to remove meds. But if you want to run carbon, then I'd replace it weekly.

If you're not running carbon in the filter, you could replace it with additional filter floss or filter sponge.

Narcicius

sounds like you got it covered, hope it all works out.

Razloga

so then how often should the "biological and mechanical" filter be replaced then? or does it ever need to be replaced?

COBettaCouple

If ours fell apart or something like that, we'd replace it.. otherwise it just gets used until then. We get this:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113808
and cut it to size for the filters. Really good and durable, not to mention inexpensive. And we have yet to need to toss a filter sponge. I like to have a couple sponges in each filter just in case though.