Filters making me crazy!

wataugachicken

The Dancing Banana
Jul 14, 2005
5,451
1
0
Charlotte, NC
I just put a brand new filter cartridge on my whisper in-tank 20-40g filter, on my 30g tank. new cartridge on monday. . . . completely clogged overflowing murky-floaty-stuff-everywhere water's-getting-cloudy cartridge today.

i gravel vac weekly, sometimes twice weekly. there's just so much crap. literally. plus feeding zucchini gets debris everywhere. i know i should put another filter on, but i really don't trust that it will do anything. i nearly doubled the filtration on my 50g and that's still clogged all the time too. grrr. i have homemade sponges on the 50g but those only extend clog-free time by 3 or 4 days. what would be ideal is a filter that would trap debris in a separate removable area that could fill up (and be taken out and cleaned out easily without having to turn the filter off and then have a bunch of gunk come out when it's turned back on again) without blocking water flow through the biological material.

stupid messy cute plecos.
 
I use a penguin 350 on both my 55s and never have a problem with cloudy water and there 26$ with the petsmart internet ad
 
You may be feeding to much. Try cutting back on the amount of feed you feed, or trying a different type of food for a while.

IMHO the Tetra internal filters are terrible...I would strongly suggest you replace it with an AquaClear 50 or 70.

I just put a brand new filter cartridge on my whisper in-tank 20-40g filter, on my 30g tank. new cartridge on monday. . . . completely clogged overflowing murky-floaty-stuff-everywhere water's-getting-cloudy cartridge today.

If the filter cartridge is clogged, sounds to me as if the filter is doing a great job turning over water and filtering debris....;)

Add another filter, or get a larger one...would help tremendously...

Blue
 
Is this a planted tank?

My Whisper internal filters always functioned with no problem so long as the filter media was rinsed well once or twice a month. The only time I had a problem was in a planted tank, and that was from plant debris.
 
My whisper 20i does a great job on my 20 gallon especially with a whisper 5-10 HOB filter helping it out. They have both been running 4 months and never been cleaned, I have rinsed the filter pads ones but never replaced them. My water is always crystal clear and parameters always great, and the flow has not slowed down that I can notice. Souns like you are either feeding too much or need more filtration, or probably both.
 
not planted. i don't feed too much, but zucchini is a big mess when it comes out the other end of the fish. otherwise they get 6-7 assorted pellets nightly. the fish just poop too much and the filter overflows. going to pick up another filter tonight, probably the aquaclear.
 
I would go with ether a HOB filter or a canister, cansiters work well with a tank because you don't have the bulk at the back and it frees up tank space.
 
the problem is that i put a new one in and it clogged in 3 days. after a month my tank would be black.
 
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