Filter Medium Replacement

[afriend]

My bio-filter for my 75 g tank is an external canister (nu-clear) which has about 1 cu ft internal volume. An external pump is used to pump water first thru a mechanical filter and then a smal portion of the filtered water is directed thru the bio-filter canister. There are three types of medium contained in the bio-filter as follows:

Coralife bio-balls (1 in diameter plastic balls with lots of prortusions)
Fluval Biomax (porous ceramic cyliinders)
ceramic 3/8 inch cubes (highly porous)

Water completely covers the bio-filter medium. I have 6 adult discus in my 75 g tank. Do I need to change the bio-filter medium, and if so, how often?

At present I'm not having any problem with the bio-filter and it has been in place for about 2 years.

Paul

[jimg]

should be able to open the valve at the bottom and drain off whatever sludge may be there.

[Darrell Ward]

No. It can be rinsed in tank water and reused forever. I run a couple of Ocean Clears on a 150 gal. I have, and only clean them about twice a year. One of them has been running since 2004. I removed the backwash valves on mine, since they were crap, and leaked. I just pull them off, take them outside, open the top, and pour a bucket of tank water in, and let it run through while stirring the media until it drains out the bottom clean. Not a big deal.

[afriend]

Jim and Darrell,

Thats what I thought, it just has to be cleaned once in awhile. The reason I asked is because I was reading the instructions on some bio-medium that I've had for sometime now and they said that it had to be replaced after 6 months. Guess they just want to sell more. Darrell, have you had any indications that the bio-filter worked as efficiently immediately after the rinse, or does it take a day or two to catch up?

Also, another question that I've been wondering about, if I add one or two additional fish to the tank will the bio-filter respond to this in time to stop an ammonia spike?

Thanks much for your inputs, they are very helpful.

[Darrell Ward]

Jim and Darrell,

Thats what I thought, it just has to be cleaned once in awhile. The reason I asked is because I was reading the instructions on some bio-medium that I've had for sometime now and they said that it had to be replaced after 6 months. Guess they just want to sell more. Darrell, have you had any indications that the bio-filter worked as efficiently immediately after the rinse, or does it take a day or two to catch up?

Also, another question that I've been wondering about, if I add one or two additional fish to the tank will the bio-filter respond to this in time to stop an ammonia spike?

Thanks much for your inputs, they are very helpful.

My filters were designed to run with poly beads. I ran one of them for years on a 75 gal., and moved it to the 150 gal. with no spikes at all with 10 adult discus. I only added the 2nd in the last year. I removed the beads from it, and added 8" of Poret foam to act as a mech. filter. It probably has a lot of bacteria in it as well, but I've had no problems with either after cleaning.

[afriend]

Thanks Darrell, thats good info to know. I guess I worry too much about my bio-filter. With your help, maybe I'll sleep a little better.