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.