bassmanten

Hello everyone. I recently set up a new 10 gal. aquarium. It came with an Aqua Tech 5-15 HOB filter. The water flows first across a charcoal filter pad, and then across a bio fiber pad. The bio fiber pad is never to be replaced.

After reading about the potential problems with charcoal, I tossed the charcoal cartridge/pad, and replaced it with simple bonded filter padding cut to the same size as the cartridge. My question is this:

Since I have a permanent bio-fiber pad, should I simply toss the bonded filter padding when it becomes dirty and replace it with new? Or should I simply wash out the filter padding in used tank water as necessary until it tears apart?

Will the bio pad house enough bacteria to keep me from an ammonia spike when I replace the bonded filter padding, or should I only replace a portion of the filter padding at a time?

I am currently in fishless cycling mode using a piece of raw salmon. The tank has been set up 18 days, but the ammonia levels are still high (about 3ppm).

Thanks for your input.

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore!
We just swish our filter media around in a container of tank water when we do the weekly cleaning & water change. If you have multiple homes for the bacteria, changing out one shouldn't affect the tank greatly so it would be ok to do that.