The Puffer Forum

I was wondering, when buying an aquarium, they say to change the filter element every month, charcoal every 2 months and the ceramic every 3 months... But with the puffer, I'm using a liquid water test kit, so do I still change the filters on a random interval or do I only change them when I see a serious change into the water quality???

I have brackish water, 1.004SG, for a single F8 in a 26gallon tank...

I have 20 year old sponges & ceramic rings. don't let the companies who make these things tell you otherwise. They just want you to buy more!

Never throw away/change your ceramics, they contain all your good bactieria. Also just rince your spongys off in tank water

What filter do you have?

The Whisper filters are not bad filters but they are designed for a 'throw away' approach to the filter media. You can avoid this by using the 'bio sponge' they include and then instead of those charcoal pads, get a big bag of 100% polyester quilt batting from a craft store and cut pieces to fit the frame that slots in on the back. Throw away the batting when it gets clogged and then rinse out the sponges (ideally not at the same time) in tank water as suggested above. You'll save a lot of money this way.

This is why I like Aquaclear filters. Like PufferPunk, I never replace the sponges or ceramic, just keep rinsing the sponges out and leave the ceramic alone. If you do the charcoal media you will have to change it periodically because charcoal only helps for 3-4 weeks then it starts releasing the toxins back into the water, or so I've heard from a variety of places. I'd put quilt batting or filter floss instead to polish the water instead of the charcoal. No reason to be running charcoal in a healthy tank. If charcoal makes a big difference, usually something is wrong with the tank, e.g. too many fish/too big of a fish in a small tank. Charcoal can be helpful to get extra medicine out of a tank (but if you've been running charcoal while treating with medicine, it's probably been absorbing it before the fish are helped by it). Anyway, I'd avoid the charcoal as it's generally a gimmick.

That's what I've been doing now, it's been 2 months that I had the tank... Been washing them in the tank water just didn't want to create any problems with not changing them... Thanks alot

+1, only carbon ever needs replacing, but honestly carbon usually is unecessary with proper tank care, unless you're using it to remove meds/chems.

Another option is to use a sponge filter as your main bio filter in addition to a power filter. Then it doesn't matter what you do with the media in the power filter because your bacterial colony will stay in that big cylindrical sponge filter even when you clean the filter pads/sponges/replace floss in the power filter. I do this in heavily stocked tanks but I don't really feel like it's necessary in your tank with just the one figure 8. I've got my figure 8 in a 10g with just the Aquaclear 20 power filter running ceramic for bio and sponges for mechanical, and doing 50% WCs each week and he seems to do great.

Sorry LRU didn't notice your post has I was posting the same time... I'm using Fluval C3 filter... It does have a charcoal media in it... it's been there for 2 months so I guess next time I do a water change I will throw it out... My foam filter actually has a "pre-filter" that looks like a quilt over it... And I have that pre-filter on the sucker...

I will I know if the charcoal actually is needed??? Will there be any fluctuation on the PH, ammonia, nitrate or nitrite???

Ti_CLaD wrote:Sorry LRU didn't notice your post has I was posting the same time... I'm using Fluval C3 filter... It does have a charcoal media in it... it's been there for 2 months so I guess next time I do a water change I will throw it out... My foam filter actually has a "pre-filter" that looks like a quilt over it... And I have that pre-filter on the sucker...

I will I know if the charcoal actually is needed??? Will there be any fluctuation on the PH, ammonia, nitrate or nitrite???

Not a problem.

I would argue you pretty much never need charcoal. It's expensive and has to be changed monthly. It helps with absorbing things, specifically medicines, when you're done treating a tank. But if you treat in a separate hospital/QT tank you don't' have to worry about this. It's also supposed to help with smells, but if your other water parameters are in check, and you have a cycled filter (with good bacteria to process the ammonia and break it down) and you don't have a tankload of algae, your tank shouldn't smell. If it starts to have cloudiness/smells/etc, the solution would be more water changes, less fish, and/or remove driftwood or decor that triggered the problem. Charcoal would just be a bandaid fix for that kind of situation.

I've never run charcoal in the past 1.5+ years I've been running tanks, peaking around 20 tanks/500g and currently around 225g/10 tanks. I've had no issues with the tanks smelling or getting cloudy, aside from a few cases where I added too many fish, driftwood without soaking/rinsing well first, or when I was first starting out and didn't understand the cycle properly.

Alright thank you very much... Will check into getting rid of it before it creates problems...

Carbon is only needed to remove mess etc from the tank, not worth the faff if you ask me. I have never bought replacement media for my eheims, I have never needed to, these companies just want you to spend out unnecessarily

Basically I use only "permanent" filter media which rarely or never needs replacing, only periodic rinsing in removed tank water. If carbon is needed for some special removal, that is a disposable item, but is ordinarily required only after certain medications, and that effect may be achieved with extra water changes if your schedule allows for that extra tank upkeep time. I gave up disposable media decades ago. dirty mechanical filter media is rinsed in removed tank water with a final rinse in aged dechlorinated water, biomedia is rinsed in tempered aged dechlorinated water only.

HTH

LRU wrote: The Whisper filters are not bad filters but they are designed for a 'throw away' approach to the filter media. You can avoid this by using the 'bio sponge' they include and then instead of those charcoal pads, get a big bag of 100% polyester quilt batting from a craft store and cut pieces to fit the frame that slots in on the back. Throw away the batting when it gets clogged and then rinse out the sponges (ideally not at the same time) in tank water as suggested above. You'll save a lot of money this way.

Interesting, and good to know. I've been using a Tetra Whisper EX70 for my 60g tank. Was replacing the charcoal every other month (alternating filters) and rinsing the bio bag in spent tank water at the same schedule. Didn't know charcoal was so unnecessary. If all I'm running is the OTB filter, can I just fill the blue filter "cage" that fits in the back slots with any alternative mechanical filter material? Will this make any difference on the bio filter, or will bacteria just repopulate from what's in the tank/ground matrix, etc? Love the idea of not changing out charcoal each month - such an annoyance. Every week to every other week 50% pwc seems to keep up with my two brown puffers (sold as twin spotted/target puffers from LFS), plus the pleco they seem to co-exist mostly peacefully with, so long as they are well fed