My 20 gallon tank is a little on the full side, and does contain 15 small fish, all roughly 1″ or so in length. I’m using a bio-wheel filter that is meant for a 55 gallon tank. My water always stays crystal clear, and my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc, always look good. However I’m going through filters like crazy, I have to put a new filter cartridge in the filter about once a week, the filters I pull out are so clogged they won’t flow water. I’m feeding my fish a pre-measured amount of brine shrimp, once in the morning, once at night before I go to bed, so I don’t believe they are being over fed. I can’t find reuseable cartridges for my filter, so this is starting to get exspensive. Is there another type of filter I could use, perhaps a canister type filter?
I just can’t believe a filter should only last 7 days?
Thanks for the feedback so far, it seems that this is not normal, but why is my filter getting clogged up so quickly? Even if I rinse it out every other day or so I still only extend the life of it by a couple days.
I take it the reason comes down to an overstocked tank or not? Some people have said it is overstocked, some say its not?
Oh and some asked, about my water and filter.
I’ve just been using regular tap water, that is treated, and I add salt to it.
As for the filters, the only ones that fit my filter are the ones MarineLand makes for their bio wheel filters.
You have way too many fish in there, they are creating a hug bio-load. You need a bigger tank or get rid of some of those fish to fix your problem.
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welcome to the world of owning a fish you have to at least change it every week n a half 2 weeks if it gets dirty clean it with water and NO chemicals
good luck
ownder of a fish store for 26 years
oh and if you get an undergravel filter it helps allot
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What i have experience is that my filter is sucking up food before my fish realy get as much as they want, i have been turning my filter off until my fish have consumed most of the food and them turn it back on .I know its a little pain in the ^%%^* but it reduces filter changing, i ll say youll notice a difference with the filters..hope it helps
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You’re probably talking about the activated carbon. It’s always expensive and quite useless (more of a sales gimmick than anything else). You just need to change your water once a week, which you should anyways.
If you have the Emperor 400 (although I imagine that the Penguin 350 has something similar or you can buy empty cartridges), it comes with 2 gray empty cartridges. Go to your LFS and buy some filter floss ($2 for 2′ x 1′ at mine) and cut a big enough piece to fit inside the cartridge. (It won’t close nicely, but as long as it will close.) Then, put that in your filter instead.
The filter floss will do a better job of picking out all the dust and debris in your water. And you don’t even need to change it every week (as you would be throwing away good bacteria). Just rinse it out in the bucket of old tank water you siphoned out when you do your water change.
I run six tanks, from 10 gallon to 55 gallon, and none of them have activated carbon.
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i suggest try to have a pre filtration before the final filter. if i could only see the set up maybe i could truly help you on how to do it. also you didnot mentioned how fine is your filtration or the required filtering for your system. for all of those information must be known to visualized your filtering need, on what type of filter is necessary as pre filtering and what kind of water you’re filtering!
to summarized:
need info on:
1. required mesh of filtration
2. type of water you’re filtering (original source)
3. what kind of filter cartridges you’re using?
I run six tanks, from 10 gallon to 55 gallon, and none of them have activated carbon.
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My bet is that this is a heavy-duty filter for such a small tank and it may be pulling more water (and food) into the media than normal. Also, I have to say that I seem to notice bio-wheels pulling in more crap, which is good, than some other filters, so this is just par for the course. First, off, you don’t need to completely replace filter media every time it gets dirty. This is the number one place where our friends, the beneficial bacteria live and every time you throw away a filter, you are throwing away those good bacteria. All you need to do with a filter is to rinse it in the water that you remove when you do your weekly water changes. You only need to replace the filter about once a month. And btw… you are definitely at your max with the bioload, but you are NOT overstocked.
I run six tanks, from 10 gallon to 55 gallon, and none of them have activated carbon.
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What the hell? What are you doing!? Your ruining your bacteria culture in your filter! Most of your bacteria comes from your filter and your gravel! First off, Your wasting alot of money. A cartridge should last you a good 4-6 months! What your doing is not letting bacteria settle into your filter. That is what keeps your ammonia and nitrite down. If your filter is loaded with crap…which i dont know how its possible, take about a half gallon of OLD tank water, and wash the cartridge out in that water. DONT rinse it out under tap water as that also kills bacteria. If your filter still wont push out the water, try looking at the uh…forgot the name…the pump spiny thing that sucks up the water from the intake. If anything is clogging it, clear it out. If that doesnt help go for a new filter. Oh btw, your not over crowded. With fish that is 1″ each, you still have about 5″ of fish left over. So everyone who is saying hes crowded already, hes not..Just as long as he keeps up with water changes.
I run six tanks, from 10 gallon to 55 gallon, and none of them have activated carbon.
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OK. whoever said Filter carbon is a load of crap, i got to give it to you :
KING IDIOT AWARD!!!!!!
that being said, you dont necesarily need carbon if you know what you are doing or are trying to achieve a certain affect (ie blackwater) . but, in your tank i would suggest using some filter bags ( any pet store, 3-5 bucks ) or some nylon stockings. get some bulk activated carbon and stuff about 1/2 cup in your stockings or media bag. use that in your filter with a small piece of foam preceding it. never remove the foam, but change the carbon every 2-3 months.
in one of my tanks i only use carbon for 5 hours once a month, just to “polish” the water. but in your tank i think you should be running it 24/7
hope this helps
Tom k
I run six tanks, from 10 gallon to 55 gallon, and none of them have activated carbon.
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