cleaning out my filter

M

mainer

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Feb 2, 2006
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I am planning on cleaning out my filter hear pretty soon... its a Whisper 10. I was wondering if anyone on here had any experience with them. What are the signs the bio-bag needs to be changed and also should i get right in there and scrub all the stuff in the filter??? will this cause my water to change once i have the filter cleaned out and new bag in it>>???

btw the filter has been in the tank with fish for roughly 4 weeks without any cleaning or anything

THANKS GUYS!!
 
The filter madia you are planning to change hold the necesary bacteria needed to keep the tank working properly. If you replace it with a new one, you'll lost your entire bacterial colony and this will cause trouble.

what you must do is to take a little of the tanh water into a basin and then rinse the filter media until you remove most of the debris it has trapped. Then, place it back into the filter.

NOTE: I'm assuming you are new to the hobbie, so I recommend you to read the cycling thread in the newbie forum, so you'll understand the nitogen cycle and why it's important to have this bacterial colony I'm talking about.
 
I wish I knew about that whole changing the filter causing trouble that was mentioned! (Stupid me. That does make sense though...) I lost half a dozen neons :sad: in my 10 gallon tank by following the directions on the filter package! It says to change the filter once a month! Sounds like tetra wants some money...

You might also want to change the amino-carb crystals in the filter when you clean it. That will improve your chemical filtration withouth the loss of your bacterial colony in the filter.
 
this doesnt make much sense to me should i scrub the outside of the bio bag and when do i know that it is clean?? Also what are these amino carb crystals Aquaristdave is talking about>??? Do i never have to actually buy a new bio bag>?? if i do is my tank going to crash then? thanks guys !!
 
IMO DO NOT use any amino-carb crystals. They are a mixture of carbon (don't need it) and ammonia chips (don't want it). The ammonia chips will remove ammonia from the water. Some people including myself believe that this "shortstops" the beneficial bacteria and results in a bacterial colony that cannot handle the full ammonia production of the tank. When the ammonia chips wear out (which all chemical media does) you could get an ammonia spike until your bacterial colonies catch up.

Does your wisper filter have a second insert that is a thin black sponge? If it does, this is where your bacteria are supposed to be housed. Never replace this or rinse it in tap water. IMO it's not enough surface area. Save yourself a ton of time trouble and MONEY and get a filter sponge that is manufactured for Aquaclear/fluval/whoever that fits snuggly in the space that houses your biobag. This, you can just take out during water changes and rinse in the dirty water bucket to remove the gunk. Then pop it back in. You've removed detritus, preserved 100% of your "bio-filter", and saved yourself some cash.

BTW I do not use ANY form of chem filtration on my tanks. Mothernature/God/Gia has provided us with everything we need to keep perfect water quality in the form of our prokaryotic friends. Trust them, they know what they're doing. I actually run all but one of my tanks on simple, elegant, effective sponge filters (most of them running off a single air pump to save on electricity)
 
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I had a whisper 10 it came with the aqaurium..what i did was rinse the bag in the water I took during a waterchange.

all you are trying to do is loosen up the matter clogging the filter(I hate the biobags)

on mine I was able to remove the clip and dump the media(charcoal) I didn't replace the charcoal..I only use charcoal every now and then to remove meds after medicating.
rinse and lightly squeeze the bag while submerged.

the actual filter can be dismantled for cleaning..in the same water I would lighty scrub the algae out. about 1 month later I got rid of the whisper in lieu of an ac(aqua clear)20.

I like the way the ac filters are set up(for a HOB)


good luck
 
I use a Whisper as a secondary filter, I'll tell you how I clean it.

I take some of the water from the tank and put it in a bucket. I remove the bio bag from the filter and place it in the bucket. Swish the filter in the bucket to remove the debris ( I try not to squeeze the filter too hard). This gets the filter media fairly clean. I then leave the bio-bag in the bucket and remove the plastic parts of the filter. I clean the filter parts in the sink, then replace them on the tank. Insert the bio-bag back in filter and turn on. You're done.

If you do it this way, you should be able to save most of the bacteria.

Don't buy into Tetra's need to have you change the bag every month. It's just more money into their pockets and killing your bio-filter in the process!!
 
AquaristDave said:
Well moonman, I guess that is something I learned that is knew. So why exactly do stores sale all of that unneeded stuff?
Click to expand...

Stores do very well by making us think that the problems we are having can be solved by some magic chemical in a bag or bottle.

I don't use carbon for anything anymore and I buy bulk filter media and rebuild my filter cartridges using better stuff a lot cheaper than buying new cartridges.
 
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