paulus

I have recently acquired a new 20 gallon tank that came with a Fluval 3 plus filter already running. This is the only filter I intend to use in this tank, and was just going to empty and clean the tank (glass covered in algae), renew the foam pads in the filter but tear a piece off the old pads to help seed the new ones. I was also going to add some gravel from my current tank to see if that speeds things up. Am i right in thinking that polyester pads or carbon pads are not absolutely necessary, and I can run the Fluval 3 plus with just the two main foam pads, cleaning them in rotation? Will this one filter system be okay for my tank, or do I need to combine it with UGF also?

atmmachine816

You should be fine with that filter. I would replace all the filter media and not use the media you aquired, no telling what was in it. Also clean the filter out real well, it's always a good idea to do that. i would take a little media from your other tank instead and you can put the gravel in a little bag with holes by the output of the filter to help seed the tank. I would leave the polyester pads, they do a lot of mechanical filtration while the sponges do biological filtration. The carbon pads you can ditch if you want or keep them, it's a personal choice. http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/2-filt...s.new.html#new Here's a post on them. That filter will be fine, no need for a UGF

paulus

Thanks for the quick response