The Puffer Forum

I have read so many different things. Several sites have said to keep it until it is literally falling to peices. Others say once a month. I know puffers are very messy and need high water quality. Also should I just buy some sheets of filter material or get the refills with carbon? It's a HOB filter. Thanks for any help.

I only replace filter floss. Pads etc get replaced when they fall apart on removal. I add filter floss to polish my water and change it fortnightly.

The sponge, change it Never. lol But do check it maybe every two months for any accumulated dead matter and rinse it. The carbon, once every two months to keep the water clear, but you really dont need carbon for functionality of the tank. the white pebble rocks in a mesh bag, never, just rinse it when it has black smelly stuff covering it entirely.

Did i describe your filter correctly? Ive seen some HOB filters with Cotton slip in filter sheets instead of the 3-tier filtration.

the reason you dont want to change out your sponge if youre wondering: it potentially un-cycles your tank by eliminating the bacteria colonies, consequently it will cause your puffers to die, very slowly and uncomfortably breathing in a suddenly un- established tank.

I have the tetra ex70 whisper filter. I don't know what filter floss is. My filter has bio scrubbers and the filter pads with the carbon inside. The water flows through the pads then past the bio scrubbers and back into tank.
Right now I'm treating for gill flukes so I took my filter pads out and stuffex polyfill in it until I finish the treatment. I put my filters in a bucket of water and put a pinch of flake food in it every couple days. Does this sound right? I know if my filters dry out the bb will die.

defool89 wrote:The sponge, change it Never. lol But do check it maybe every two months for any accumulated dead matter and rinse it. The carbon, once every two months to keep the water clear, but you really dont need carbon for functionality of the tank. the white pebble rocks in a mesh bag, never, just rinse it when it has black smelly stuff covering it entirely.

Did i describe your filter correctly? Ive seen some HOB filters with Cotton slip in filter sheets instead of the 3-tier filtration.

the reason you dont want to change out your sponge if youre wondering: it potentially un-cycles your tank by eliminating the bacteria colonies, consequently it will cause your puffers to die, very slowly and uncomfortably breathing in a suddenly un- established tank.

Precisely it is like draining the oil from your car engine while it is running. Disaster will follow.

All of my filter media are permanent. Various media are rinsed weekly to monthly, depending on the particular medium.

Get yourself an Aquaclear filter. The sponge gets rinsed out monthly. I add 1" cotton floss to "polish" the water crystal clear. The biomedia on top gets rinsed every few months.

rinse all your filter media with tank water so as not to kill the bacteria

Filter floss is almost impossible to clean and not expensive so I just replace it once its starting to get blocked.
As for bioballs, filter foam etc. just give them a rinse out as required (depending on the bio load of the tank) in used tank water. Just keep doing this until they start to fall to pieces, also be careful of disturbing the filter media to often.

I have AC filter sponges >20 years old... Just bought a bunch of replacements from Amazon for $4 ea.

I too have many filter sponges well past 20 years old. Quite a few of those are rinsed weekly and have be in constant use >25 years. Some are rinsed even more often. I gave up floss >25 years ago.

Like my good quality canisters and bio-media, quality sponges are effectively forever. But then, I do still have one tank which has been in operation since the 1950s...

I buy huge bags of pollow stuffing at the sewing machine stores (or Walmart), & layer 1" in all my AC filters, between the sponge & biomedia. It does a fantastic job of "polishing" the water crystal clear.

I would change the filter in my 36 gallon everytime it started to overflow from the drain part of the hob filter. My water was always cloudy, couldn't figure out why. I then researched here and on the net and it said not to change, just clean. I did that and now my water is clear. I have now learned NOT to change filter like the box says...lol