Jerry1809

After spending many hours staring at my new tank then reading threads on this site, I am confused... Do I need to change the carbon in my filter and not change the entire pad? I assume carbon is available to purchase separately? Can I get away with using a filter without carbon for the life of my tank?

My wife yelled at me last night for watching my "stupid" fish then reading about them for hours! I guess I am just hooked but I really am learning a lot and I told her our next tanks will be mistake free!

Lucy

Hi Jerry
If you use carbon, change it out every few weeks if you can, keep the pad. A lot of the bacteria resides there.
Some of us use carbon, some don't. You can choose not to use it and fill that spot with extra filter media for more bacteria to grow on.

Jerry1809

Thanks for the info Lucy. Do you have any recomendations for filter media?

MarkWVU02

With that filter there is not much you can do but swap out the cartridge every 3 or 4 weeks. There should be enough bacteria in the filter itself to not cause a mini cycle. I had the same filter on my tank for a while but eventually bought an aquaclear 70 to replace it. The aquaclear has more media space and all the media is separate so you can change the carbon without changing the other stuff so beneficial bacteria always remains. It's probably a 50 or 60 dollar upgrade but in the long run you save money not having to buy the cartridge every month.