atmmachine816

Well I decided to try something new today, instead of replacing my filter cartridge in my penguin-bio-wheel with a new one I decided to throw in some filter fiber I had laying around and see how it worked. Well I put in enough to make the wheel spin and so far it's doing great. All that is different then the regular cartridges is there is no carbon. Before you decide to do this let me finish expierementing to make sure it's works good but if you want to do it to you can. It's a lot cheaper for me and is a lot easier. Let me know if you do this, see any flaws, or are going to try it.

Austin

Marc

I have tried it and it worked horribly. At least, it did on my 330.

atmmachine816

WHY?

Butterfly

You can use the untreated quilt filler from wal-marts quite successfully. Just make sure it doesn't have any flame retardant or perfumes.
Carol

Marc

If you just stick in filter floss the water passes through it badly and will often either just go over it (carrying any debris) or go over the edge of the plastic near the tubing.

atmmachine816

Is filter floss and filter fiber the same? And I have it completly up so that water passes throught it not over it but we will see how it works.

Austin

atmmachine816

Well it's been a week now and it has lots of junk on it and the wheel is still spinning great and the water is crystal clear, it's working GREEAT

Austin

atmmachine816

Anybody, is filter floss and filter fiber the same? It's been over a month now and it works great. The water doesn't pass through it but rather it collects tons of junk. Only draw back is that you have to rerange it every week when you turn the filter off.

fish_r_friend

yep onee and the same really confusing isent it

fish_r_friend

you could do the same thing off ice does
http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=5

0morrokh

That's a great idea. I might have to try that.

atmmachine816

Fish R Friend that's what my grandpa did for years but since I combined the fish from some of his tanks when I did it the wheel didn't spins so I bought store bought ones, then I was tired of spending the money and I find it's a lot easier just to stuff some of it in and make sure junk is getting on it. It works great for me and collects more junk than you'd think, I'v been doing it for several months now and it's still working great.

Butterfly

yep its the same thing just different ways of saying it (floss and fiber )
I use it to clarify my water sometimes. My 55 has messy eaters in it and the water gets bits of dissolving shrimp pellets floating around while their eating and the floss takes it right out.
Carol

fish_r_friend

well im glad you found something that works only if there was some way to do the same thing onthe tetra filters

atmmachine816

Internal or HOB?

fish_r_friend

HOB im thinking of a way to do it

atmmachine816

Can't you just take a handfull and stuff it in there, that's what I do.

fish_r_friend

no it may get stuck in the chamber were the impeler is

atmmachine816

O they aren't separate, in the bio-wheel they are?

fish_r_friend

they are really close with a very little bearer

atmmachine816

O, maybe make a barier?

fish_r_friend

good idea is just to close and i don't want to break my filter

atmmachine816

If you are going to give it a try maybe you can post a picture of the inside of your filter and we can give you some ideas of how to do it.

fish_r_friend

my camera is lost at the moment so i cant

chickadee

Maybe if you went to www.tetra.com you could copy and paste a link to us to show which filter you have and we could figure out how to help you. I do not use floss but I do have the blue filter bonded material that works and it a generic filter material and saves a lot of money.

You just cut it to fit and I get a 312 square inch sheet and get about 20 filters out of it.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113808 -

Uncut Blue Bonded Pad - I buy the 6 pack since I have 3 tanks and it doesn't take long for me to use that many filters as I change them regularly. I could wash them but I never do. They just are not that expensive. I love the stuff and only use the carbon in media bags when I need to remove medication.

Rose

btate617

You said the only difference is there is no carbon this way....... doesn't matter. you only need carbon to remove meds from your tank after you have treated for a disease. thats why it says to take out carbon on most of your med bottles.... if you leave it in it takes the meds out of your water and you are not treating your fish. so you have nothing to worry about not using carbon. Brian

chickadee

That is very true and I have media bags to put some carbon into when I do need it which is what I do if I need to remove the meds. I just happen to have a few of the commercial ones left too so I always have that option for med removal but I won't be purchasing any more of them at $1.50 each.

Rose