Filtering Question

[TKOS]

Growing up I had a 5 gallon tank that had one of those sit on the bottom plastic box filters with floss and carbon. I just recently bought a used 10 gallon tank that I am cycling using an old filter cartridge from my 1 gallon betta tank to help speed things up. This tank has an over the top aqua clear mini. From what I have been reading carbon isn't all that necessary for everyday use so I was just going to use a spong filter. The question is how often do you clean those out? I don't want to do it too often and loose all o fthe good bacteria but I also don't want to let it go rancid or anything.

Thanks

[JSchmidt]

You probably don't want to mess with it too much while you're cycling, but after the tank is established you could safely clean the sponges at least once a week. If you use old tank water (or any dechlorinated water, for that matter) to rinse the sponge, you shouldn't have any substantial loss of biofilter. Also, the more crud you remove mechanically (through trapping it in the filter media and rinsing it away) the less there is to break down into nitrates and other pollutants.

Allow your tank to stabilize and cycle, then feel free to rinse your media as needed to keep it clean.

Jim