I have a filter meant for a 2-10 gallon tank in my 15 gallon. I find it doesnt suck enough so im upgrading to the propersize before I add more fish. Its going to be a whisper 20 galon filter - from a whisper 10. How can i make the transition as smooth as possible???
Answers:
If I recall those two filters use the same size cartridge. If so just move the cartradge over to the new filter. If not, try running both filters for a week or so and then remove the old filter. Even if the cartridge size is different you can move the carbon from the old filter to the new one and that will move some bacteria if the carbon is more than a week or two old.
MM
hi i'm bill,take 1 third of water from tank peferably drain from top half of tank.retain the water in two containers,then take filter medium and rinse out under running cold water,once the majority of muck is out of the medium ,place medium in first of water from tank rinse for 5 mins,then move to second container and rinse again.you can then replace filter back in tank and discard 2 containers of dirty water,then refill your tank with aged water preferably 4 to5 days old .good luck.
Easy... Take some of the filter media from the old filter and put it into the new. Sometimes a little yucky but it will make it work.
I have found that when making any kind of change like this, it is best to do so with a chemical. If you choose not to, that will most likely mean a few fish deaths and some water that doesn't have the proper equilibrium. So, I will let you know how to do this and what to use.
When making this kind of change, I use a chemical called Cycle. What this does is keeps the beneficial bacteria up to a good count so that when you make the filter change, as long as you treat the water with Cycle, you can give the filter some time to catch up. Now, you only need to treat the water about once a week while you are allowing the filter to catch up, and only on the first time do you treat the tank with the full dosage suggested. You will only have to treat the tank from 2-3 weeks, so it shouldn't be that long, and while you are treating the tank, you shouldn't have any deaths.
You can buy the chemical called Cycle at any pet store and generaly at any walmart in your area.
Hope this helps.
I agree, keep it simple and don't waste money on chemicals for this.
The point is to save the bateria you already have. The two options to do this have been mentioned - either transfer the filter media from the old to the new, or run both filters for a couple of weeks until the new one has time to get established.
Anything else is overcomplicating the issue.
I like getting best answers but this is a time where I have nothing to add, but it seems there is a wide range of oppinions across the board.
Your first response I would donate my vote to, its obtained my thumbs up. I could go and change some of their words around, but I'd be just telling you the same thing.
- Water is impeded, its time to clean the filter
- Take the filter and some mucky water, wrinse out the filter, soak it in the water a while, badabam. done. I'm confident they suggested 2 containers to get it fully wrinsed, personally I work with just 1.
Regardless its important to remember that although a large amount of your bennificial bactera is in your filter, its not nearly all of it. The majority will dwell in your substrate bed / Gravel bed. Because of this, I would urge against a filter cleaning and a vaccume on the same day for the exact concern stated above. .. dont wanna cripple the bio filter..
If you spread the 2 maintenance tasks across 2 weeks, you have a 5 minute job to do every week, its not too taxing on your personal life, and it will keep that bio filter strong!
This in mind, I never perform more than 1 maintenance task on my tanks in a week, unless mandated.
One suggestion to add to everyone else. Buy a bio-wheel filter if you can afford one. They're not much more than whispers and are a ton quieter and work better in my experience. The bio wheel will become your biological filter. What you can do before you switch is soak the bio wheel in your tank for a few days. In all honesty, whisper filters don't really build up much of a bio filter in them because the part that would trap the bio organisms is the filter pad and you change those (hopefully!) once a month. If your tank has been established for a while you should have more than a sufficient bio-filter in your gravel to sustain a filter change. You can always add an additive like "cycle" which contains bio organisms that will help re-populate your tank. We add a bit every time we add a fish. In the end I wouldn't worry too much. Good luck!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment