Upgrading Filter... topfin 20 HOB and just bought a pennplax cascade 500

HI all,

Looking for some tips on how best to go about my filter upgrade. Currently have a topfin 20 HOB and just bought a pennplax cascade 500. this is for a 20 gallon high tank (also a topfin). Currently cycled for about 3 months, decent parameters overall. I've got the stock stuff in the HOB (filterfloss with carbon and the thin blue screen for biological filtration that came with it), and also added some coarse foam to the filter about a week ago. I also have a minI sponge filter that has been in the tank for about 2 months ().planning to put a variety of foams into the one tray of the pennplax and seachem matrix+purigen into the other.

Would like to do this without crashing my cycle--- any help/advice appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!

 

unless you can put the old media in the new filter it will temporarily mess up your cycle

 

thanks! if I move all the old media (foam + screen) minus the floss to the pennplax will that keep the cycle running? i'm just worried that somehow moving the media would kill the BB on it.

alternatively, if I were to run both at the same time, would the new filter get seeded with BB and allow me to remove the old filter in a few weeks?

 

Yes you definitely could run both at the same time. As long as the filter media doesn’t dry out, moving it won’t kill the bb. I personally run two filters on a tank and make sure the cartridge changes are separated by a week

 

Run both filters for a few weeks.

Or just run both continuously. In the future, you may need to set up a temporary quarantine tank. You could throw the TopFin20 filter in the QT as needed for quick setup and instant cycle.

I have a Topfin20 also that I moved to a 10g. With the right media, they work just fine!

 

Awesome thanks!
Would running both the canister and the topfin create too much flow in a 20 gallon tank? I also have an airstone + a small sponge filter...

 

The TopFin hob filter has a knob at the top of the intake tube, that can be turned to reduce the flow output.

You can use that if there is too much current in the tank.

But I doubt it will be a problem.

 

I don’t really see a need for a canister filter on that small of a tank

 

Agree the best way to do keep the cycle is to run both simultaneously for a month or so. Yes, a canister is overkill on a 20g, but so what. IMO it's a great idea to over filter. You'll be getting quite a current in there though so try to keep fish that like that.