Should I Replace Filter Cartridge?

Hi! I've had Bettas in the past. My last one lived for three years. I took a break for a few years and I purchased a male Betta two weeks ago from Pet supplies Plus. He seemed fine in his little dish but once I got him home and into his conditioned aquarium 1.5 gal, after about one day he started acting lethargic and only staying in the top corner. Took him back two days later and the guy told me he wasn't getting enough oxygen and I needed a live plant. Brought home a new fish along with a plant he pulled from one of their fish occupied aquariums. In the meantime I had purchased a 3.5 gal tank with filter system. Put him in the conditioned tank with plant and after about three days he started acting strange and bumping into everything, which I new was an indication of ICH but didn't see any spots on him. Next day, sure enough spots showed up!! Went back to store and bought ICH med. He now seems ICH free and swimming all over the place. Now for my question! I have done two treatments of meds 48 hours apart. So, in two days I am suppose to syphon out 1/3 of water and replace with new conditioned water. It says that I should replace the filters but they are only about one week old. Do I need to and are they contaminated. They have been out of the water for four days since I started treatment. Thanks for your time! By the way, I threw out the plant!!

 

Bettas are labyrinth fish, and don't require extra oxygen. Don't replace the filters, and I'd highly recommend clicking the blue letters nitrogen cycle, and read about it. Also, if you don't have a heater, I urge you to get one.

 

A few things come to mind here. I think you should read up on the Nitrogen Cycle as I suspect that played a part in the first problem (staying near top and lethargy). Fish create waste (ammonia) and in a healthy cycled tank the ammonia will be broken down into nitrites by beneficial bacteria. The nitrites are then broken down into nitrates by another bacteria. Nitrates are the least harmful but still need to be removed by us during weekly water changes. The bacteria is not present in new tanks and need to build up and colonize the filter media over time. If ammonia and nitrite builds up the fish becomes ill as both are toxic to the fish. Sounds to me the tank did not cycle before you added your fish, this is the first problem.

Then the ich, which it sounds you've cured for the time being. I prefer the heat treatment (raising the heat to 86-88F) and more frequent water changes but meds work too. Problem is, some ich meds use formalin and Malachite green, which is harmful to your beneficial bacteria. This means you may have lost whatever bacteria you had built up in your media.

So now we come to the water changes. I'd change a good 50% today and then another 50% tomorrow to remove as much of the meds as possible. They are no longer needed so take them out. You can use activated charcoal to remove it as well (this is usually what the black grain are in filter cartridges). Seeing as you tank probably isn't cycled you might want to do 3 times weekly 50% water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites down.

And when replacing filter cartridges, I never replace them unless they are literally falling apart. Just rinse them off in old tank water when doing water changes and you're good to go. I probably rinse my filter media about every 1-2 months.

 

Yes never EVER replace filter cartridges until they are falling apart as they hold much of your beneficial bacteria by throwing it away your throwing away your cycle.

 

If you have to replace the filter cartridge, cut a good sized piece of the outside material off of the old one and put that in the filter along with the new cartridge. That will seed the new media and hopefully continue your cycle. After about 2 weeks, you can remove the old piece of cartridge material. In my case, my filter has 2 cartridges so I just replace one at a time and wait at least 2 weeks before replacing the other one. I let them go until the water flow is being restricted by the cartridges clogging up. You can only rinse them so many times before they become virtually useless. Marimo moss balls also wind up hosting a good amount of beneficial bacteria as well as biofilm that shrimp and small fish can pick at.

 

Thanks everyone for all the advice!!