Washing old filter pads from HOB???

[pcfriedrich]

I was at petsmart today looking at the ceramic rings to add to the gray cartridges for my Emperor. $17? anyone recommend a cheaper alternative? small lava rock, maybe? old aquarium gravel?

 

[ANIMALHOUSE]

When you guys say rinse the Filter cartridge in tank water.

Are you saying to do his while a w/c and use the extracted water in a bucket to clean the cartridge and dispose of the water.

or

to do it in the tank (which i highly doubt)

 

[TMDragon]

When you guys say rinse the Filter cartridge in tank water.

Are you saying to do his while a w/c and use the extracted water in a bucket to clean the cartridge and dispose of the water.

Bingo!

 

[ANIMALHOUSE]

Thanks!.

Love MFK!

 

[Plecos_Ftw]

Interesting thread I used to feel really guilty about being broke sometimes and cleaning them off and re-using them. Crap and I just bought a new big pack of them. Awesome now I know

 

[Pyramid_Party]

I reuse them for awhile, but end up replacing after a few months. I jst thought they dont do good after awhile. I have ammo chips I add in sometimes.

Also, I have a aquaclear 110, and theres a pad, a carbon pack and a sack of those ceramic rings. I was reading in the manual to change each item every 3 weeks. I thought that was a bit ridiculous. But as far as I know, the pad shouldnt ever need to be replaced, but the other 2 I am not sure. The rings are for the beneficial bacteria, so should oyu never replace these? And the carbon pouch should you replace this after some time or jsut rinse and reuse? It did say to not change them all at the same time, btu do 1 seperately each time, whcih makes sense.

 

[banjocat]

I reuse them for awhile, but end up replacing after a few months. I jst thought they dont do good after awhile. I have ammo chips I add in sometimes.

Also, I have a aquaclear 110, and theres a pad, a carbon pack and a sack of those ceramic rings. I was reading in the manual to change each item every 3 weeks. I thought that was a bit ridiculous. But as far as I know, the pad shouldnt ever need to be replaced, but the other 2 I am not sure. The rings are for the beneficial bacteria, so should oyu never replace these? And the carbon pouch should you replace this after some time or jsut rinse and reuse? It did say to not change them all at the same time, btu do 1 seperately each time, whcih makes sense.

Carbon would need to be replaced. A lot of people don't even use carbon, except when removing meds from the water. I put extra ceramic rings in place of the carbon. Rings are easy to wash in old aquarium water. The sponge is starting to turn brown on me though. I think washing the sponge under a sink would help, but I don't want to kill all of the beneficial bacteria. It has been 6 months since I bought new media on my oldest AC110. I only bought the new media, because of a disease outbreak.

 

[TMDragon]

I have a HOB that uses filter cartridges and what I've done instead of replacing them is rip off the blue filter pad and keep the black backing. I punched some holes in the rim and buy some large sheets of padding. I cut the padding to fit the cartridge and stitch it on with some thread and there you have it, a brand new cartridge. I replace the padding every few months or so whenever it gets worn down by simply cutting a new piece of filter padding and restitching it on the black backing. This way, you can pick the filter padding of your choice, buy it in bulk and refill the carbon if you want. You get a new cartridge everytime for a fraction of the cost. I can't take the credit for this idea though because I got it from a thread a few months back, can't remember who it was that posted the idea...I'm edging towards midnight, lol.

Also, I have a aquaclear 110, and theres a pad, a carbon pack and a sack of those ceramic rings. I was reading in the manual to change each item every 3 weeks. I thought that was a bit ridiculous. But as far as I know, the pad shouldnt ever need to be replaced, but the other 2 I am not sure. The rings are for the beneficial bacteria, so should oyu never replace these? And the carbon pouch should you replace this after some time or jsut rinse and reuse? It did say to not change them all at the same time, btu do 1 seperately each time, whcih makes sense.

The ceramic rings are your bio-media and personally I see no reason to change it ever. If it ever gets gunky just rinse it out in some old tank water. Same goes for the foam pad. Carbon, however, does exhaust over time and loses it's effectiveness after a few weeks depending on your bio-load. Whether you want to change it or not is up to you. Even if you decide not to change it, I would still leave the carbon pouch in the filter, it will give some extra surface area to house some beneficial bacteria.

 

[thomast77]

I thought Carbon leached if used to long?

 

[TMDragon]

I thought Carbon leached if used to long?

Nope, I believe this whole leaching thing is mere speculation.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45694&
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=713274&postcount=15

According to DR Joe:

What most people call leaching back into the water is really just the water absorbing some of the stuff the carbon had taken up, this is a long process found when people only change the carbon every 6mo.s to a year...mostly from ignorance of the properties of carbon. If carbon were to change color, say like purigen does, we probably would never have had this dicussion.

If you do regular water changes, I'm sure the amount of whatever the water absorbed from the carbon is insignificant. Plus I've had the same pouches of carbon for years and it has never caused any problems.