So i’m a newbie and I apologize for any rash mistakes i’ve made as I didn’t know any better. I have a fluval 407 and my tank is yet to be cycled and I have fish in as I didn’t know any better. It’s been two weeks of having the fish. The fluval 407 came with bio media for one cartridge the sponges and such for another and 2 packets of carbon for one cartridge and 2 packets of carbon and 2 phosphorus pads for the final cartridge. I heard that carbon and phosphorus isn’t necessary and I was planning on switching the chem media with extra bio and mechanical media. I was wondering when would be the best time to do this. Like during a water change or maybe as soon as possible or after the first month when the carbon runs out. Please help me out
Filter media switching
- Thread starter domslimedout16
- Start date
Beneficial bacteria will colonize all the media in your filter to some degree, depending on the available surface area of a particular media. If the chemical media make up a small proportion of total media you can switch them out anytime you like.
Even carbon eventually becomes bio, it's just not as efficient or durable. As a proof of concept years ago I ran a filter for a year with carbon as the permanent media and just a small bit of poly fluff as mechanical and it still removed ammonia and nitrate. (aquarium carbon starts with plenty of pores but as it adsorbs organics the pores fill up and you have just the surface; being organic itself it also starts to break down eventually) So, for the sake of illustration, let's say half your filter was filled with chemical media. The more cycled your filter gets the more beneficial bacteria you'd remove by removing that media. In that case it would be better to switch sooner than later.
Even carbon eventually becomes bio, it's just not as efficient or durable. As a proof of concept years ago I ran a filter for a year with carbon as the permanent media and just a small bit of poly fluff as mechanical and it still removed ammonia and nitrate. (aquarium carbon starts with plenty of pores but as it adsorbs organics the pores fill up and you have just the surface; being organic itself it also starts to break down eventually) So, for the sake of illustration, let's say half your filter was filled with chemical media. The more cycled your filter gets the more beneficial bacteria you'd remove by removing that media. In that case it would be better to switch sooner than later.