Carbon Infused Floss: Will I Need Bags Of Carbon As Well?

since I have a Topfin filter and the local shop is a petco (closest petsmart is an hour away), my father and I got carbon infused floss padding to replace the cartridges with. Is this enough? Or should I get loose carbon and bag it myself? One of my tetras is pregnant so I really don’t want to have an ammonia spike. In the filters there’s mixed media.

30 gal: carbon floss padding (cut to size and two small extra pieces)
Fluval biomax and part of the bag t came in (bag didn’t fit so the biomax is loose and the bag is also in there)
10 gal: filter cartridge (guessing it has maybe a week or so left)
Carbon floss, three smaller excess prices from the 30
Loose Biomax and half the bag cut up.

I split the biomax between tanks since the bag didn’t fit in either filter, so I cut it in half and evenly separated it between them. Planning to get more

What do you guys think?

 

Firstly, don't change your filter catridges or medias unless it's really necessary.
The filter cartridges and medias hold all your beneficial bacteria.
If you change them all at one time, your fish will die and you'll have to recycle your tank again.
You can replace them but only one at a time not all at one time, else your ammonia will spike.
And when you want to change the filter cartridge, place the new and the old cartridge side by side for about 1 month. This will enable the beneficial bacteria to be transferred from the old cartridge to the new cartridge.
After 1 month, then only you throw away your old cartridge.

Secondly, don't use any carbon in your filter. You only use it after you have medicated your tank to remove the medications.
Carbon will absorb too much of the minerals that is required by your fish and plants. Your fish and plants need the mineral to stay healthy.
Carbon doesn't hold the beneficial bacteria. It's the floss from the cartridge that hold the bacteria.

And if you keep the carbon too long in your filter, it will leak the toxic back into your tank.
So, you don't have to use carbon unless you have to remove medications or some toxic in the water.

Actually, it's a waste of money to buy the filter cartridge.
Just buy a small piece of sponge pad, cut them into the right size and use them as your filter media.
Fluval Biomax is good but may not be really necessary.

Sponges are good enough to hold many beneficial bacteria due to their big surface areas.
It will be good to buy two types of sponges - fine and coarse type.
Place the coarse type near to the water inlet and the fine sponge near to the water outlet(water returning to the tank).
Note: Don't buy the cotton filter floss as they are too soft and won't last long.
Look for stiff type of sponge that stays in shape and can last for many years.

Examples of sponge for filter:




The sponge can last you for many years probably forever.
You can change the coarse sponge when it gets too dirty and too difficult to clean.
But don't overclean them each time you clean the filter media(during your maintenance time) , else you will lose too much beneficial bacteria.


All the best.

 

Firstly, don't change your filter catridges or medias unless it's really necessary.
The filter cartridges and medias hold all your beneficial bacteria.
If you change them all at one time, your fish will die and you'll have to recycle your tank again.
You can replace them but only one at a time not all at one time, else your ammonia will spike.
And when you want to change the filter cartridge, place the new and the old cartridge side by side for about 1 month. This will enable the beneficial bacteria to be transferred from the old cartridge to the new cartridge.
After 1 month, then only you throw away your old cartridge.

Secondly, don't use any carbon in your filter. You only use it after you have medicated your tank to remove the medications.
Carbon will absorb too much of the minerals that is required by your fish and plants. Your fish and plants need the mineral to stay healthy.
Carbon doesn't hold the beneficial bacteria. It's the floss from the cartridge that hold the bacteria.

And if you keep the carbon too long in your filter, it will leak the toxic back into your tank.
So, you don't have to use carbon unless you have to remove medications or some toxic in the water.

Actually, it's a waste of money to buy the filter cartridge.
Just buy a small piece of sponge pad, cut them into the right size and use them as your filter media.
Fluval Biomax is good but may not be really necessary.

Sponges are good enough to hold many beneficial bacteria due to their big surface areas.
It will be good to buy two types of sponges - fine and coarse type.
Place the coarse type near to the water inlet and the fine sponge near to the water outlet(water returning to the tank).
Note: Don't buy the cotton filter floss as they are too soft and won't last long.
Look for stiff type of sponge that stays in shape and can last for many years.

Examples of sponge for filter:





The sponge can last you for many years probably forever.
You can change the coarse sponge when it gets too dirty and too difficult to clean.
But don't overclean them each time you clean the filter media(during your maintenance time) , else you will lose too much beneficial bacteria.


All the best.

Thank you for the advice! The stuff I’m talking about is fine carbon infused floss, and since there’s quite a bit of debris in the bottom of the tank I usually keep it in to prevent ammonia spikes. My fish are really dumb and spit their pellets out onto the gravel, and my siphon isn’t big enough to clean it all up yet.

 

Actually, carbon don't absorb ammonia.
It'll absorb some toxic and chlorine but not ammonia.

An article about activated carbon:



Some fish don't like big pellet and you have to feed them with smaller pellets.
I find that most fish even the choosy fish will eat Dr. Bassleer Biofish Food M Size Regular which is very small. Even my Blue Rams or Apistogramma that are very choosy will eat this food. All my etras will eat this food.


Another brand of fish food which most fish will eat is HikarI Tropical Micro pellet.


Usually I try to have a few types of food sizes to feed different species of fish.
Most fish will eat HikarI food that come in different sizes and shapes.

I also have a very good brand of fish food - New Life Spectrum.
But not all fish will eat this food even though it's one of the best food. Some fish will spit out as they find it too hard. They may try a few times before swallowing the food.


You can try to keep some fish like KuhlI Loach that will try to clear all your leftover food.

But the best fish that will eat almost everything and make your tank super clean is the Satanoperca JuruparI but they will grow to quite large and you need to have a big tank for them.
I have four Satanoperca JuruparI in one of my tank and every time when I siphon my tank, there is almost nothing for me to siphon because they eat everything and keep my tank so clean.
They are one of the most interesting fish and the best fish that I've seen so far.

Some info about filter media:
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/3-stages-of-filtration-and-what-they-do.74651/

By the way, the best way to have healthy fish is to make regular water changes.
Water changes is far more important than all the filtrations.
In the wild, the fish have big volume of water and the water is being changed frequently.

Usually I changed 70-80% of my tank water once a week for smaller tanks and at least 60% for bigger tank even though I have at least 3 filters in all my tanks.
And for the bigger tank, I will try to change 80% of water once a month to keep the nitrate low as nitrate can only be removed through water change or plants absorption.

Having a few filters are good for backup as whenever I clean my filters, I will only clean one at a time to prevent too much lost of beneficial bacteria.

Having bare tanks without substrate also make it easier to keep your water clean as I can easily siphon out all the waste every week. This is important especially for some sensitive fish like Blue Rams.

 

Pukkafish , here is a LINK for a thread on forum giving many examples, ideas and pics for adding FIy media to your filter.

The majority of the pics used for examples is probably the same model as yours.

Carbon is optional for filtration and not 100% necessary. It is good for removing meds and also tannins from wood.

 

Pukkafish , here is a LINK for a thread on forum giving many examples, ideas and pics for adding FIy media to your filter.

The majority of the pics used for examples is probably the same model as yours.

Carbon is optional for filtration and not 100% necessary. It is good for removing meds and also tannins from wood.

I use it in my 10 gal specifically because I have a bit of wood that makes the water really dark with tannins and my shrimp can’t see very well, thank you for the link!