missi

Hi all,

My tank seems to be doing better than it was, thanks to all of your help. One of my Guppies died last night, but showed no signs of any illness, he just died. He is the one that had ick a few weeks ago.

Readings this Morning:
ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite .25ppm
nitrate 5ppm
pH 7.4
Temp 82 degrees

I missed my water change yesterday... but just did one.

My tank is 3 weeks old tomorrow, and I have not changed the filter yet. It is a Marineland Eclipse System with a biowheel. The filter is a bit dirty, but I do not know if it is because of my dark gravel (when we first put it in the tank, the tank turned dark, as I guess we did not wash the gravel well enough.

So here is my question, should I throw in a new filter, or should I just rinse the one I have out with some dirty water when I do a change tomorrow? I already have a few sitting around ready to throw in, so cost is not an issue, I just dont know if it would be good, or bad to change it now. I havent really been testing my levels daily, since I have been doing the daily water changes, but I am going to start daily to see if it has leveled out yet or not. I would like to add more fish, but I want to make sure it is good first.

Thanks for all your help, I have learned so much from you!

Lucy

Just rinse it out in used tank water.
It looks like you're close to cycled, hold off getting fish until you have readings of 0 ammonia 0 nitrites with some nitrates showing.

Dozey

The Eclipse uses cartridges that include carbon in the cartridge. You do need to get the carbon out of the cartridge. Carbon expires after about 3 weeks and then start leaching toxins back into the water.

missi

Yes, it does have Carbon
Should I just put a new one in?

agabr123

no, you should try and get as much of the carbon out of there as you can. just cut a hole in the filter media and pour as much of it out as you possibly can...generally, you shouldn't ever replace your filter media until it's falling apart. even then, you should get new media, and then put BOTH pieces of filter media back into the filter and let them run concurrently for a month or so.

missi

Is there a different kind of filter I could get to go in there? One that does not have the carbon or something? I dont think I could put two filters in the place it has for them...

Dozey

I’m only going by a picture I found of the replacement cartridges. But it looks like you may have a very hard time getting the carbon out of these cartridges. It looks as though it some kind of a carbon block that is actually the frame of the cartridge.

http://www.marineandreef.com/Eclipse...p/rml90154.htm

I have two new Marineland Penguin Bio Wheel filters and they are going into the trash as soon as my even newer canister filters are seeded. I quickly got fed up trying to get carbon out the cartridges and trying to keep them clean enough for the filter to run properly.

agabr123

bummer........i'd buy a biobag, they are for tetra whisper filters but it looks like one should fit (not 100% sure which size though) and they are really easy to take the carbon out of.

http://www2.shopping.com/xPC-~PD-392...=%7Bkeyword%7D

basically, you lift the tabs on the green "frame" and pour out the carbon. there is also room on the inside for extra filter floss

missi

The frame on the filter is plastic, not carbon. I think... Should I try to just get the blue stuff off the top, and put that in there without the plastic piece? Would that work?

agabr123

you should cut a slit in the filter floss part of it and pour as much of the carbon out as you can, and then put the whole thing back in

missi

Ok.
I will try to get the carbon out.

But here is another question,
Why cant I just replace it? I know it has good bacteria in it, but I also have the biowheel, which is supposed to have all the bacteria on it, so wouldn't that make it so it is ok to just throw a new one in?

I am confused. Everything I read about this tank is just confusing.

agabr123

IMO the biowheel doesn't have enough bacteria on its own to keep the cycle running, but that's just from personal experience with one biowheel.