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Transitioning from internal to external

Whitebeam

Member
Joined
15 Aug 2010
Messages
67
Location
Dorset/Wiltshire Borders
The thought has now been sown in my mind that I should transition from my Juwel internal filter to some sort of external filter whenever I can sneak such a purchase past SWMBO. :shifty: :shh:

I'm just musing now about how to rapidly mature the new filter. Do I simply squeeze the gunk from the existing pads from my internal into the external and then run them in parallel for a week or so? Would a week be enough?

Also a dumb newbie external filter question please: What do I do about heating? My internal currently has a Juwel heater inserted into it - can I simply take this out and somehow stick it to the back of the tank, or is there one more complication I need to consider here? I assume that the Juwel heater must be fully waterproof?

Peter
 
I would just put your Juwel media into the new external and leave it. For heating, you would probably end up with either a heater loose in the tank (you can get heater holders with suction cups to attach to glass) or you can get in-line heaters that fit on your filter tubes. The Juwel heater is fine to use.

Tom
 
Peter

Save moving / distrubing the original jewel media - set your new external filter up and run the two units together, personally I would leave it for approx. four to six weeks to culture the bacteria within the new filter unit. Then pull your original jewel filter unit out.

Regards
Paul.
 
I switched from a Juwel internal to a TetraTec external, all i did was stuff the Juwel media into the TetraTec and away I went. No reason to do the other way unless you want to, either way is fine.
 
Ok, I'm now the proud owner of a Eheim 2073 and am planning my changeover in detail.

My current thought is to cut up the matured sponges that are currently in the Juwel internal into inch sized cubes (2.5cm cubes if you're not bilingual ;) and put these into the bottom (first) section of the Eheim in place of the black plastic noodles that come with the new filter; all other sections of the new filter will be filled with their proper Eheim bio-filter materials. I'll then run the filter like this for about a month, monitoring water stats carefully for the first week or so, before finally removing the old sponge and putting the noodles back in.

Any thoughts or comments on this plan?

Peter
 
Sounds good to me :) You shouldn't loose much bacteria in the change-over provided you do it fairly quickly so I'd be surprised if you see deterioration in water quality at all. Just don't leave it sitting around too much while you set it up, as it can quickly run out of O2. Get all the Eheim pipework in place before you remove the old media from the juwel filter.

Tom
 
Whitebeam said:
Ok, I'm now the proud owner of a Eheim 2073 and am planning my changeover in detail.

My current thought is to cut up the matured sponges that are currently in the Juwel internal into inch sized cubes (2.5cm cubes if you're not bilingual ;) and put these into the bottom (first) section of the Eheim in place of the black plastic noodles that come with the new filter; all other sections of the new filter will be filled with their proper Eheim bio-filter materials. I'll then run the filter like this for about a month, monitoring water stats carefully for the first week or so, before finally removing the old sponge and putting the noodles back in.

Any thoughts or comments on this plan?

Peter

i just stuffed my old juwel sponges into the carbon section in my tt ex1200 , no problems from this at all.

When i went to remove the juwel filter i could pull it away by hand (tank itself is about 8 years old tho) so i just left the powerhead running on that with it in the front corner whilst i set up my pipework and fittings for the tt to keep the bacteria supplied with oxygen.
 
Just to finish this thread for future generations who can use the 'Search' button ...

I did as planned and simply chopped up my old Juwel sponges into the bottom (first) compartment of my new Eheim filter, put in the Eheim bio media and put the lid on. All has been perfect, with Ammonia and Nitrite staying at 0.0ppm.

I claim success in the changeover and am now a fully qualified member of the Eheim Owners Club :geek:

Peter
 
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