cicatriz

having read about how much carbon sucks in aquariums and planted aquariums in particular i was wondering if anyone could tell me how to remove the carbon from pengiun filter packs? i recall seeing this somewhere (maybe on this page) but cannot find how to do it now. do i just cut the pacakge and dump it out? or is there another way?

Isabella

I've never had a Penguin filter, so I cannot tell you about it in particular. But in my filter - Aqua Clear - there are 3 separate filter media: a sponge, bio-cubes, and activated carbon/charcoal. Since the a.c./charcoal is a separate pouch, I simply remove the pouch and throw it away.

Now, in my Whisper Tetra filter (which I don't have anymore), the filter media looked very differently. There was a separate sponge, and there was a separate pouch into which I inserted the carbon. To get rid of this carbon, I simply threw it out of the pouch and rinsed the pouch in tank water to get all of the carbon out of the pouch. Then I inserted the pouch back into the filter, and that's it.

Which of the 2 above filters is your Penguin filter more like?

Jim

I made a slice along the top of the filter pack and then dumped the carbon out...

cicatriz

the filter cartridge is a single piece that has blue foam/mesh on one side and a black plastic grid on the other side - inside are the lil bits of carbon...



when you cut open the filter did you do anything to hold it back in place or did you just leave it?

Luniyn

Here read this.