KyWildFish

I read all this and have another question. I have an Aqueon 30 power filter and it only has one slot for a filter cartrige. The cartridges seem to be proprietary for the power filter and I dont want to take out all my bacteria. I have tried to clean it out in some tank water when doing my last water change and it hardly dropped anything. What are my options.

Fishies-for-me

To add more biological filtration and to make the filter media in the filter last longer you can also get a open weave sponge ( for a filter never use kitchen sponges or sponges of any kind that are not for aquarium use as a lot of them have chemicals in them to retard molds and stuff) cut a small hole in the middle of it and slide it over the intake on the filter. It will also help to keep fry out of the filter and you can swoosh it around in old tank water whenever it gets dirty...will act as a bio filter and a prefilter. I use this in my guppy tank . If you use to dense of a sponge it may reduce the flow so that is why I use a real open weave one. ( large pores in the sponge) Here is a pic of the sponge in my tank...after a while it turns dark from bacteria and dosn't stand out so much.

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Shawnie

GREAT way of explaining it and also the pic rocks!! ty for sharing it!

juwanil

Now im confused. If you remove the carbon and or charcoal then where do you get chemical filtration from? or am i missing something completely

mrsmuffin

The theory is that with proper biological and mechanical filtration, chemical filtration is only needed to pull something like meds out of the water.

juwanil

Thank you for clearing that up for me. I read this and it kinda threw a wrench into everything i have heard

chewzas

You talked about cleaning the filter media such as sponges and cartridges. How about the container that holds those stuff? How do you clean it? I was changing the filter media and I noticed that there is some kind of slimy, brownish layer inside my filter container. Is it dirt or bacteria that I should keep?

Butterfly

It's mostly bacteria. About once a year I rinse inside the filter case with used tank water.
Carol

chewzas

Thanks, Carol. I almost accidentally washed away all the bacteria!!

Butterfly

Welcome!