New Filter Question

[chrisjj]

A brief history:

My tank holds 60ltrs of water:

Thought my old filter was on way out (Aquael fan 2 plus - 450lph) ......
Bought new (better?) Fluval U3 filter (600lph).....
Put new one in tank with old one .....
Reduced power a bit on both....

Did I do right?
If so, how long will it take for the new one to be ready? I don't want to mess around with moving media from one to the other - I don't mind both filters being in there for a bit.

As it turns out, the old one was just a bit blocked & is working fine .

I will leave the new one in the tank though, as it seems to be better & has bigger flow rate and the old one will be fine for a little inevitable tank #2

 

[Dolly Sprint 16v]

Chris
Not trying to be funny - but how long is a piece of string :?: personally I would run it for a couple of weeks or even a month - better to be safe than sorry.

Regards
paul.

 

[chrisjj]

I assume that this has been done before - I just wondered what other people have experienced?

I was thinking a number of weeks anyway - my fishless cycle took 3 weeks, thought maybe that the new filter would be ready a bit quicker as the mature one is in there too.

Cheers

 

[vauxhallmark]

If you want to be really safe, take the media out of the old filter in stages - you can make up the time scale, but an example would be:

3 weeks - run both
next week - take out 1/3 of old media
next week - take out 1/3 of old media
next week - take out 1/3 of old media

If you just run them side by side and they're similar volumes you might end up halving your bacterial colony if you just remove one filter - this way you can do it more slowly.

Good luck,

Mark

 

[chrisjj]

Good idea - when you say take out 1/3 - do you mean cut the sponge, or could I just rinse it a bit to reduce the bacteria population, then put it back?

I think I'll slowly increase the flow on the new one whilst decreasing the flow on the old - that should help too I guess?

I don't want any issues with my water quality if pos - I think I have pregnant Cardinal Shrimps!

Appologies if basic questions - am new to this!

Cheers

 

[Dolly Sprint 16v]

Chris

When I change my filters over - went from a TT1200 to a Eheim 2080, I used 2/3rd's of filter media from my TT1200 and placed it into my 2080 with 1/3rd of new Ehiem media, one month later I removed 1/3rd of the 2/3rd and replaced it with more new Ehiem media another month passed and I removed the remaining 1/3rd of TT1200 media and added more Ehiem media - after two months I was running with full Ehiem media. If you do decide to mix media - put the new media between the old media or make a sandwich with it - old bread with a new filling hmmmmmmm tasty

Regards
paul.

N.B - I would run the two filters together less hassle.

 

[chrisjj]

Plan changed upon inspeciton of filters;

Fluval filter has 3 compartments - 2 sponge and carbon cartridges - one either side of a central cartridge holding ceramics. Each cartridge is rectangular. the cartridges each side hold a sponge and a carbon filter. The sponge is about twice as thick as the carbon filter.

Old filter has a square, cylindrical sponge.

I decided that I don't need the carbon filters for my set up.

I removed both thin carbon filters and both sponges from the side cartridges.
I set aside both carbon filters & one sponge.
I cut the other sponge down the middle (longitudinal) to make 2 thin sponges - these being about the same thickness as the carbon filters.

I then cut the original square mature filter down the middle - creating 2 rectangular sponges. These ended up being about the same size as the new sponges.

I've placed one (half) of the mature sponge (to replace the new sponge) & a thin new sponge (to replace the carbon filter) in each cartridge.

So, all the mature sponge is now in the new filter, plus a bit of new sponge, & it seems to be a reasonable fit.

My tank now has one new, more powerful filter containing all the mature sponge from the old filter.

I did all this in a bit of tank water, then put the water back in the tank - this water was obviously a bit mucky, but I wanted to get as much of the gunk back in the tank.

I hope this works & will test the water regularly over the next few days.

Fingers crossed!

 

[chrisjj]

Water crystal clear & water tests perfect.

Looks like it's been a successful filter change!

Cheers