the best thing about aquaclear filters is that the media lasts forever and is easily adaptable. The sponges last for years and so should whatever biomedia you're using. I just rinse them in tank water. I don't use carbon unless removing meds as per the other posts.
I use the carbon that comes with the filter when new. After it has expired, I install a second sponge at the height the carbon would be to keep the bio-media at original height. Sometimes I leave the expired carbon in there to use as a secondary mechanical filter. I rinse and clean all filters once a month to every 2 months.
Carbon in proper amounts only lasts approximately 72 hours and then it begins to lose it's effectiveness. The loss is not sudden and tapers down to the point that at end of week 2 it's not doing much but taking up space or working as a mechanical filter.
I never change the bio filter... why would I want to eliminate all my beneficial bacteria? As stated above, I rinse the sponge once a month in change water. I use charcoal to get rid of meds or clear up any funny odors. Mostly I use peat pellets or additional floss when not using charcoal.
Only when it gets really gross and swishing and squeezing it in the siphoned tank water doesn't help. I can also tell when the water starts to overflow around tube intake at the top. Sometimes I'll cut a square of the old filter and put it down in the new bio bag just to keep some of the bio filter that was in the old bag.
Same here, and it made a real mess with bits of Carbon everywhere. I now plan on NOT cleaning the filter, just waiting a really long time between changes, or perhaps getting filter material which is a solid chunk of material and not the flimsy pouches that you put carbon in. That way I can rinse them without them falling apart. Of course, this would mean that I would have to stop using carbon, but these ready made filters, like what I use on the Tetra Power Filter 40, have almost no carbon inside them, it's kinda pathetic actually.
ok thanks for the input. if i hadn't have asked this, i would have been out there buying more carbon when i don't need to!
so now that my carbon has lost its effectiveness, what should i put in its place? or does it make a pretty good mechanical filter?
also, i have a question on placement of media in the filter.
right now i have a sponge at the bottom, then carbon, then ceramic tubes. this is the way the instructions stated.
but my ceramic tubes are halfway out of the water. i was wondering if it would be better to rearrange so that the sponge is on the bottom, then the ceramic tubes, then something else on top, that way my bio media is always submerged.
I, also, don't really change my media. I don't use carbon unless I need to remove meds, in which case I only run it for a few days to a week anyway. If I needed to run it for longer, then I'd change it every 2 weeks if not sooner for maximum effectiveness.
Otherwise, I just rinse and squeeze in old tank water as needed for flow, and I never replace the bio media unless I have a tank wiped out by disease and am starting over.
My sponges in my aquaclears have always lasted a very long time I rinse them out twice a week during water changes. I am old school about my bio media. I would never replace any I just rinse it off with tank water and even then only some of it at a time.
