Maintenance for aquaclear 50

My filter is probably my most ignored piece of equipment. I have the aquaclear 50. Inside is the foam, charcoal, and and bag of seachem matrix. On my old penguin 150, I always kept 2 cartridges in there, rinsing with water changes from tank water and changing 1 of them when needed.
What's the best way to maintain my filter media & the cycle?

What about cleaning the filter itself - Do I need to clean any other parts of the filter?

Thanks

 

What I did with my AC70 was to remove the filter from the tank, lightly rinse the media in collected tank water, pour out the detritus that collects at the bottom of the filter and rinse the filter container in tap.

I think the recommended cleaning schedule for the impeller is once every three months. That can be variable tho depending on the bioload of your tank. I just used a Q-tip to clean out the impeller well and rinse very carefully with tap.

The most annoying thing about the cleaning the AC is that when you turn off the filter, all the detritus flows backwards into the tank! But I used a prefilter to catch the large detritus particles.

Hmm, I've always kept 2 filters running in the tank, so I'm not certain if you'll go through a mini-cycle with the cleaning. Your tank has been established for 2 months? It should be Ok, just don't get too zealous in your cleaning. And if you go through a mini-cycle, it should bounce back quick.

 

I went through a rough patch with unstable ph so my cycle crashed but i'd say about a solid month now of decent cycle. I didn't actually notice all the that collected in the filter...amazing. It's a new filter so it's not bad at all. Maybe I'll get some preflight sponge before I do any cleaning of any sort.

thanks!

 

If your nitrates are low, you can wait to do your maintenance since you've had some trouble establishing your tank.

 

Nothing on my AC50 as well as my three Fluval C's (same motor on all / same impeller system as well) have ever been cleaned in 15-18 months of use and not a single problem. I am meticulous about changing/servicing the media ... but the filters themselves rarely need cleaning unless you are operating under unusually dirty circumstances.

Much more important to do weekly vacuums of substrate and water changes.

Suggestion: Activated carbon is pretty much worthless once the tank is established. Use tightly packed floss in lieu of carbon to catch fine particles that the sponge misses (to polish the water) and to avoid the bypass caused by the holes on the side that cause water to flow directly into the carbon with no mechanical filtration.

 

HI @1972, can you explain to me why you think activated carbon is "worthless"?

 

Carbon is a filter media that removes chemicals such as medicine and polishes water to prevent the water from smelling.

IMO, if you're doing weekly water changes,the wc should also reduce the smell, so the carbon isn't needed there.

A lot of people prefer to not use carbon and instead use extra bio media and sponges to give the bb more places to live. Carbon needs to be replaced monthly, otherwise it will release chemicals into the tank.

 

According to research done by Dr. TI'm Hovanec, activated carbon will remove trihalomethanes.

http://www.daveh.org/carbon.html

Trihalomethanes are a common byproduct of drinking water sterilization. The level of trihalomethanes in drinking water is regulated by the EPA and studies according to them have shown that people who drink water with higher dosages of trihalomethanes over years can develop cancer, kidney, liver and central nervous problems.



Activated carbon undoubtedly removes toxins from the water. The question is, are the levels of toxins entering the system harmful to the animals. Probably not. Can these toxins build up to dangerous levels in a closed system? I don't know.

 

I've always used carbon simply because on my penguin 150, it was in the cartridge. It came with the AC50, so I used it.

Today, I spent some time doing some tank maintenance taking care of anything and everything that had to get done. In regards to the filter, here's what I did -
-siphoned out some water into bucket.
-removed filter media(with filter running) and placed in bucket with water.
-siphoned out detritus from the bottom of the filter
-replaced the media, turned off filter
-completed water change while vacuuming substrate.

This worked really well for me as there was a lot of detritus in the filter. Nice to know how well it does its job!!

 

A lot of people prefer to not use carbon and instead use extra bio media and sponges to give the bb more places to live. Carbon needs to be replaced monthly, otherwise it will release chemicals into the tank.

Not arguing or disagreeing, have been thinking about these issues for a while. Appreciate you bringing this subject up. Just asking:

1. From what I understand, please correct me if I am wrong, each cycled well established tank has exactly as much BB as the fish in the tank need. Not more. Not less.

If you add a fish, move some media into another tank, or just throw away a falling apart filter cartridge, a well established tank will deal with it quickly and efficiently, without any issues, it will replenish missing BB in a very short time. No minI cycles, no ammonia or nitrate surges and mo pH crashes. Etc.

In other words, the BB in the tank remain the same whether you have or don't have extra media instead of carbon, as long as your bioload does not change, just as the size of your BB colony will remain the same whether you have one cycled filter or three identical cycled filters. Am I wrong?

If you have a cycled Fluval C4 HOB filtering a tank with a single Betta, would you move this filter to a 30 gallon tank with two grown Goldies and consider that the tank is cycled. ?

2. I've read a number of discussions about used up carbon releasing or not releasing toxins back to the tank. What do you base your statement on? Not disagreeing with you, just asking for clarification of the source for this information.

Again, thanks for bringing up this subject.

 

Activated carbon does nothing for the nitrogen cycle in terms of keeping your water paramaters for healthy fish. According to this:

https://www.fishlore.com/activated-carbon-aquarium.htm

The carbon does the following:

•Remove odors from the aquarium water

•Remove yellowing compounds

•Remove medications, supplements and plant fertilizers

So if you have a healthy tanks and are doing regular water changes .... in most cases it does nothing.

This statement from post #10 above is generally correct:

In other words, the BB in the tank remain the same whether you have or don't have extra media instead of carbon, as long as your bioload does not change, just as the size of your BB colony will remain the same whether you have one cycled filter or three identical cycled filters.

Thus, if you'd like crystal clear water as well as a healty tank, you are better off adding floss or micron polishing pads to your filter media. A full explanation is here:

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/why-filter-floss-micron-pads-explained.121997/

This is why these forums are great. I had to learn the hard way that carbon is worthless ... I found out from these forums AFTER I purchased lots of it 18 months ago ..... and it is still sitting in my closet.

Carbon does little more than make money for those that sell it due to its short life. For chemical filtration that assists with the nitrogen cycle and helps polish the water so that your tank looks "stunning" like the fish are swimming in air, use Seachem Purigen.



The clalrity of the water in both my tanks is nothing short of stunning. My tanks are odorless, healthy, and paramaters for ammonia and nitrite are both at zero with nitrates safe under 30ppm with weekly 20-25% water changes (my tap is horrible and I have to use 50% bottled water).

For more on what i've done to optimize filtration, go here:

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfi...t-filter-media-for-a-fluval-c4-filter.164204/

and see my post #4.


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