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At present I have a Biobox2 filter. "What in the world? is that I hear you say.
Well, it is an all in one plastic box that contains the heater, Pump and filter with several media, white fibre, blue sponge, black sponge and some clay at the bottom.
The biggest problem I have found recently is that if the pump works anything but at maximum efficiency, the water in the main tank cools down as all the warm water is staying in the Biobox and cutting out the thermostat. Crazy.
I have therefore put the heater outside the box and the temp has stabilised.

I have bought, on the recommendation of my LFS, an Aqua-Flow 2 filter (see attached pic) with just 2 sections of foam media. To change over filters, can I take out a piece of the sponge from the sealed cannisters in the biobox2 and swap it with one of the sponges in the Aqua-Flow? I imagine that woud retain enough bacteria to keep the tank cycled.

Attached Images

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Tavel

The surest way would be to just run both filters simultaneously for a week, slowly cutting back the flow on the old one every couple of days. If it doesn't have flow control, remove some filter media every day. (The bacteria will only colonize what it needs so it won't necessarily move over to the new filter just because it's there. You need to give it some incentive).

I think your proposal would work fine too though. I might still overlap for a day or so anyway, just because the bacteria colonizes the entire filter, inside and out...not just the media.

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Thanks for that info Tavel. My tank has been up and running now for almmost 2 months and I can't get the ammonia level to 0. It has been testing at ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 0 and nitrate 10 since 11th of February and won't budge, although it did test 0 ammonia on the 1st March for one day, wow. That is another reason that I suspect the old filter is a bad piece of kit. I use API test kit. I have kept a full record of readings and would be obliged if you would take a look, I can attach it.

Tavel

perhaps your tap water has ammonia in it? But I'm just betting it will cycle out completely now that you have a good filter on it. It really makes a huge difference. Filters need to get the nutrients to the bacteria (good flow rate) and have enough space for the bacteria to live without being crowded.