prairielilly

New filter for new tank!

My new AquaClear's instructions say to replace the biomax every so many months --? Why replace it at all? is that just another price grab thing? Those of you who have this filter, what do you do?

I had bought some more biomax to put in instead of the charcoal insert. Instead of that, will it work fine with a bunch of filter floss and some sponge media from another tank?

Thx...

Wyphy

I haven't had my AquaClear for that long, and I also have 2 BioMax instead of carbon.

The replacements aren't really too expensive, depending on where you buy them, but it could be considered as a marketing strategy, but I believe there is a purpose to changing them out every so often.
Whether changing them every month or two (I forget what is recommended) is necessary, I doubt it. I would think that the bags would start degrading after a time so it would be better to change them just before that to make removal easier.

I plan to keep an eye on mine and change them every 5-7 months or so, one at a time to save the cycle of course, and the same with the sponge, though maybe more frequently.
Since I don't have fish yet, I can't speak for sure of the life cycle of the various parts.

agabr123

lol, yeah i didn't do that. i just cut open everything and dumped all the charcoal out then put it back in. you won't have any problems with just having some extra filter sponge in there

Butterfly

I believe the purpose of replacing the biomax is because eventually the pores get stopped up. I personally wouldn't replace it over once a year and not all at the same time. It's great for putting in new tanks for beneficial bacteria.
Carol

prairielilly

Thanks everyone!

ccb04

Not necessary to replace biomax as often as recommended, IMO.

On my Aquaclear 50 ... I have taken to utilizing a sponge pre-filter on the intake tube (which is simply a smaller Aquaclear 20 sponge with a slit cut in it), then I run dual sponges with 1 biomax to top things off. I've chosen to do this for several reasons.

The sponge pre-filter helps to keep debris from.....

- More readily fouling and clogging the porous structure of biomax ... it's good to keep your bio media as debris free as possible so the nitrifying bacteria doesn't have to compete with debris to survive

- It also keep debris from fouling the intake tubes and impeller

- And it keeps debris from clogging and reducing flow through the bottom sponge, which can cause the media basket to float (not a problem at all when sound maintenance is carried out)

On occassion, I also lightly 'swish' the biomax in used tank water.

If you're going to utilize a sponge pre-filter ... you should rinse it in used tank water regularly. I coincide it with my weekly water change. Given that the sponge will release trapped debris when the filter is turned off and suction ceases, I immediately remove the intake tube with sponge attatched and place it in a container of used tank water to be 'swished' a bit later. I then proceed to remove the floating debris that is released by the sponge with my vac before it sinks to the bottom ... I then continue with my water change.