I have a 10g planted tank, and use a simple Whisper 10 HOB filter. My question is, the "Bio Bag" filtration media has gotten quite dirty and i've noticed sediments in the water column. I assume i need to put a new Bio Bag in but would this not remove alot of my biological filtration? I figured this may be a problem when i set up the tank so i did throw in a bit of eheim substrate pro into the bottom of the filter when i set up the tank so i do plan on just leaving that in there. How do most of you replace the filters in these and still retain a good amount of your benificial bacteria? thanks.
Whisper 10 Filter Maintenance
- Thread starter ho114nd
- Start date
that is one of the bad sides of the whisper filters. you lose a lot of beneficial bacteria when you change the cartridge. i use an aqua-tech filter and it has a black sponge type thing in it that never gets removed and that holds a good bit of beneficial bacteria, so i dont lose so much when i change my filter. the penguin biowheels are good too cause the wheel holds a lot of good bacteria. the pet store i used to work at always recommended that people didn't use whisper filters, they are not very good.
One thing you could do is get a second Whisper 10(it never hurts to overfilter) and get it started before changing out the media in the first one. Once the new one gets kind of dirty then change out the old one. That way you'll always have a "dirty" one to fall back on for your bio filter. I do this on all my tanks and usually have a dirty bag I can seed a new tank with when necessary.
Stasia
Stasia
If you are not ready to charge out and buy new filters, try rinsing out the old cartridge in water from your aquarium (the part you would discard with a partial water change). The carbon is probably no longer working but in most cases you won't really need it. This way you can re-use the old filter and keep your bacteria. Then as others have suggested, when you can get set up with another filter, let it run for several weeks on your tank with the old one before you think of removing the old one completely. Basically you will be cycling the new filter while the old one keeps your tank healthy. At that point, if you want to set up some carbon filtration, you could actually change one of the filter cartridges at a time.
Hi there, I thought that the Whisper series came with a Bio-bag and a Bio filter which is a thin strip of black sponge on a plastic cradle. The water will flow through the bag first, then go through the black sponge (the bio filter) that way you only change out the bag, and leave the sponge in (for bacteria).
This was one of my first filters I purchased ( one internal and one external) although I don't really use them anymore. Then again, it has been almost a year, so if they changed their design I wouldn't know.
If I am wrong about the current design, oops, but both of mine came with a bio sponge. Maybe yours was removed before you purchased it? Do you still have the box with a picture on it?
Good luck...
This was one of my first filters I purchased ( one internal and one external) although I don't really use them anymore. Then again, it has been almost a year, so if they changed their design I wouldn't know.
If I am wrong about the current design, oops, but both of mine came with a bio sponge. Maybe yours was removed before you purchased it? Do you still have the box with a picture on it?
Good luck...
Yes, there should be a black sponge that slides in front of the bio bag. You never change the sponge, and just rinse it in the "dirty" tank water before you throw it out. (during water changes). You can also swish the bio bag in that, but I think changing the bio bag out once a month or so doesn't really hurt the biological chemistry of the tank. Most of the good stuff is stored in the black sponge.
I have an older one, without the sponge. I originally had several. Once the tank's established, I've never had a problem just replacing the filter. I do leave all the accumulated growth in the filter box in place.
I've tried the bio-wheel filters on several of my newer tanks. Not sure how much of a gimmick the wheel is. I do find that the bio-wheel filters are much harder to get started than the Whisper ones... much more sensitive to low water in the filter housing... the Whispers seem to have stronger pumps and are much more self-priming.
I've tried the bio-wheel filters on several of my newer tanks. Not sure how much of a gimmick the wheel is. I do find that the bio-wheel filters are much harder to get started than the Whisper ones... much more sensitive to low water in the filter housing... the Whispers seem to have stronger pumps and are much more self-priming.
echoofformless
Peat Advocate & Defender Of Snails
Aside from the sponge, you can also put whatever you want in the bag. So I have mine setup with biomedia. Whenever I do maintenance I dump everything into my bucket of tank water. If I change the bag, I of course just drop the old rinsed biomedia back in. Problem solved.
ah, i will check but i do not think mine has the black sponge. I bought the filter several years ago so maybe mine does not have that feature. Thanks all for the replies. I will probably look at getting a better designed filter for this setup, as my current one seems to have some shortcomings.