Penn Plex Cascade Filter Problem

HI guys, I am new to the forums and still a novice in aquarium knowledge. I have a problem with my new Cascade filter and I just have a quick question. The o-ring on the impeller broke and I am waiting for a new one to arrive. Right now I am using my old backup pump and have the cascade turned off. I have it filled with water and my bio media is in there. Is that a mistake? I did that to try to keep my beneficial bacteria alive. I had the filter running about 2 weeks before I had a problem with some type of algae growing on my artificial plants . When I took the pump apart to clean it out I noticed the o-ring was stretched out. Should I empty out the canister and start over again when I get the impeller fixed?
As far as what was growing in my tank I have no idea. Turned the light on one night after I got home from work and this stringy clear stuff was everywhere. It looked like someone toilet papered the tree in my back yard. I have had a tank for the last 4 years and have never seen anything like this. It is a 16 gallon tank with 2 baby angle fish. I went with the Cascade 500 canister filter as overkill to eventually upgrade to a bigger tank. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture of the growth. I was checking all my levels and everything tested good. Sorry for the long winded post. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This was the tank before the mess. Thanks Rob...

 

If it were mine, I would at least put your bio-media in a media bag and drop it in your tank.

Then just rinse off your sponges and let air dry.

Keeping your bio-media in the tank should keep your cycle going.

 

Hello, I had a similar problem w/my cascade 1000. It was blowing bio film all over tank. The media trays do not fit tight in cascade canisters. So when sponge & floss pads get dirty the water will follow a path of least resistance. Any bio film or gunk around trays will end up in tank. This may also clog hose's & spraybar. This is a easy fix. I bought a bag of fiberfill($4.95 at Walmart) & lightly packed around all media trays to stop blowby. As for keeping media cycled just put in bucket of tank water & add a air stone for oxygen. You could also throw a pinch of flakes to feed it(this breaks down to ammonia. Hope this helps!

 

Hello, I had a similar problem w/my cascade 1000. It was blowing bio film all over tank. The media trays do not fit tight in cascade canisters. So when sponge & floss pads get dirty the water will follow a path of least resistance. Any bio film or gunk around trays will end up in tank. This may also clog hose's & spraybar. This is a easy fix. I bought a bag of fiberfill($4.95 at Walmart) & lightly packed around all media trays to stop blowby. As for keeping media cycled just put in bucket of tank water & add a air stone for oxygen. You could also throw a pinch of flakes to feed it(this breaks down to ammonia. Hope this helps!

That is a great idea. When I took the canister apart that film was all over the bottom of the canister. I will pick up the fiberfill and do that. Thanks for you help.Rob...

 

Hello again, yeah, cascade is not a bad canister w/a few tweaks. I didn't care for the way that the premade sponge & floss pads fit either. So went to petco & bought a sponge that fits snug in bottom tray(5$&lasts forever). In middle tray I put a thick layer of fiberfill w/plastic pot scrubbers to hold in place(4 for in pak at dollar store)& they hold a lot of bacteria. Top tray I use red lava rock as my biomedia(5$lrg.bag home depot)w/layer of fiberfill to keep anything from blowing off media & into tank. It's been up & running for about 8+mo. & haven't had to replace(just clean)any media.Keeps water crystal. Hope this helps!!!!!

 

Hello again, yeah, cascade is not a bad canister w/a few tweaks. I didn't care for the way that the premade sponge & floss pads fit either. So went to petco & bought a sponge that fits snug in bottom tray(5$&lasts forever). In middle tray I put a thick layer of fiberfill w/plastic pot scrubbers to hold in place(4 for in pak at dollar store)& they hold a lot of bacteria. Top tray I use red lava rock as my biomedia(5$lrg.bag home depot)w/layer of fiberfill to keep anything from blowing off media & into tank. It's been up & running for about 8+mo. & haven't had to replace(just clean)any media.Keeps water crystal. Hope this helps!!!!!

Thanks again. I have the 500 model and it only has 2 trays. I found a guy on youtube "Pondguru" and did his suggested upgrade. 3 layers of foam on the bottom tray (coarse, Medium and fine) and in the top tray bio media ultra. As soon as I get my new O-rings I will be up and running again. going to buy the fiberfill now. I am very surprised that that bio film grew so fast. I was only running the filter for 2 weeks. Thanks again.

 

No problem, good luck!

 

Okay, I'm getting ready to start losing my mind. I have buy canister filter running for 2 days and that stuff is starting to grow back inside my tank again. I took everything out and soaked it in part bleach and part water to kill anything that could have possibly been on it and the stuff is coming back. I never had this type of a problem with my hang on filter before. I go to a canister filter and it's giving me nothing but a headache. I have absolutely no idea what the **** is causing this I've had this tank for 4 years and never seen anything like this before. I really need some help here.

 

Can you post a pic of what is in the tank that is growing?

 

I pulled all the plants out right now it's small with a white particles that won't probably show up on the camera. The first time this happened it ended up being long clear strands almost look like if you would pick toilet paper and throw it in a tree toilet paper Blowing in the Wind on a tree that's what it look like inside my tank. The only thing in my tank now is some ornaments I'm waiting to see if the stuff is going to grow on that all my water parameters were good I'm going to check it again tonight when I get home from work

 

I took the plants out last night and I had them laying on the they're on a paper towel overnight. The stuff's already coming back here is a picture.