How To Install Fish Tank Filter Cartridge

Take you always bought a new hang-on-dorsum filter from the pet shop and noticed that the instructions say you accept to modify out the filter cartridge at least once a month? Most beginner fish keepers don't realize that y'all tin can replace those disposable cartridges with reusable filter media that can last for the lifetime of the filter. In this article, we teach you how to optimize your aquarium filter in four simple steps, using just a pair of scissors.

Step i: Become a Prefilter Sponge

Beneficial bacteria are a naturally occurring form of biological filtration that swallow the toxic nitrogen compounds produced by your fish's waste, thus making the water safer for the fish to live in. They tend to grow on any underwater surface, including the gravel and walls of your aquarium. Therefore, ane of the easiest ways to encourage their growth is to increment the amount of surface area in your tank with a prefilter sponge. (If you lot aren't familiar with the 3 types of filtration – mechanical, biological, and chemic – yous can read our article called Fish Tank Filters: Which I Should You Get?)

A prefilter sponge is a foam cylinder that fits over the intake tube of your hang-on-back or canister filter, like a sock on a foot. Not only do prefilter sponges abound lots of benign bacteria, but they also help with mechanical filtration by preventing food, small fish, leaves, and other large debris from getting sucked into the filter's motor compartment.

Large prefilter sponge

Pick an accordingly sized prefilter sponge for your filter, and you can hands double its filtration capacity.

Install the prefilter sponge then that it barely covers the slits on the lesser of the intake tube; that way the filter pulls h2o from the bottom of the prefilter sponge for maximum filtration. Still, if you lot find your prefilter sponge is a picayune too loose, you can cut off a sliver of sponge and stuff it downwards the center hole to brand a snugger fit. Likewise, if y'all detect that the water catamenia from your filter is decreasing, make sure to regularly clean the prefilter sponge virtually once a month by squeezing out the debris in a bucket of former aquarium h2o.

Step two: Remove the Disposable Cartridge

At the first of the article, nosotros mentioned that you should supervene upon the default cartridge the filter comes with. Merely why is information technology then bad? The fact is that virtually cartridges are made out of fine filter padding for mechanical filtration (to remove debris from the water) with activated carbon inside for chemical filtration (to remove medications and other impurities from the water). Unfortunately, the fine filter padding and activated carbon quickly go saturated with waste and impurities, greatly lowering their effectiveness, and their dumbo materials are hard to clean and reuse.

Stride iii: Install the Reusable Filter Media

Fill upwards the filter compartment (where the filter cartridge was supposed to get) with coarse foam sponge and bio rings. These filter media types are reusable, take much more than surface surface area for biological filtration, and can increase the amount of capacity filtration past upwards to iv times! As with the prefilter sponge, at that place is no need to constantly replace them and throw away all that beneficial bacteria; merely rinse the filter media in old aquarium water once a calendar month.

Coarse sponge pad from Aquarium Co-Op

Fibroid sponge pads remove debris from the h2o and can be reused by rinsing them on a monthly basis.

For mechanical filtration, we like to use coarse sponge pads that yous can cutting to fit any compartment in a hang-on-back or canister filter. We offer fibroid sponges because they practise not clog very easily, are adequately low price, and can terminal 10 years or more. For biological filtration, you lot can use bags of bio rings that have lots of porous holes for benign bacteria to abound in. If the handbag doesn't fit perfectly into the filter, you can too buy a resealable filter media bag and cascade the correct amount of bio rings that volition fit inside the filter compartment.

Bio-rings from Aquarium Co-Op

Bio rings help boost the growth of biological bacteria, which consume the toxic nitrogen compounds produced by fish waste.

In order to install the filter media, find out which direction the water flows through the filter. For case, in an AquaClear filter, the water travels upwards from the bottom of the filter compartment to the top and and so falls back into the aquarium. Place the coarse sponge pad at the bottom of the compartment (and so that the h2o hits it first), and so place the bio rings on superlative of the sponge. That way the fibroid sponge removes nigh of the gunk from the water and the bio rings (which has smaller pores) won't get muddy as quickly.

If you have a nano tank for your betta fish that comes with a built-in filter compartment, you lot may non be able to fit as many layers inside. Therefore, we recommend switching out the disposable cartridge with only coarse sponge, which provides both mechanical and beneficial filtration.

Footstep 4: Make clean the Reusable Filter Media

Make sure to regularly maintenance your filter and rinse the filter media once a month. Mechanical filtration (such every bit prefilter sponges and sponge pads) acts like a garbage tin that collects waste – which means you every bit the fish owner are even so responsible for cleaning the filter media (in other words, "emptying" the trash tin can before it overflows and causes water to spill out of the aquarium).

How Do I Upgrade My Filter to Get Crystal Clear Water?

If you want to really smooth the h2o, simply add a layer of fine poly pad that has very small pores and is capable of removing tiny particulate. Like the cartridges, these fine filter pads will eventually need to be thrown out and replaced once they become saturated with debris. However, the advantages are these pads are very inexpensive and tin can be cut to whatever size.

Fine poly pad from Aquarium Co-Op

Poly pads are great at removing fine particles so that you become crystal-clear water and your fish look like they're flying in midair.

Final Thoughts

Upgrading your filter with reusable filter media makes your aquarium arrangement much more efficient and better at keeping the water quality high. The upfront price may be a little more than at first, but reusable filter media tends to terminal for the lifetime of the filter, saving you a lot of money in the long run.