I have a 55g with an aqua clear 110hob filter on it. I just ordered the filstar xpL. I was wondering how I should do the change over? Should I run them together for a month so the filstar can build its own bacteria colony or would that be way overkill? Otherwise I just take the media out of the aqua clear and put it in the filstar?
Filter swap
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I feel it depends on a couple things that you will have to judge. If you are the careful sort and really like to avoid trouble, let them both run for quite some time. Maybe even a month if the tank is soemwhat new. If it is an older more steady tank there will be a larger amount of bacteria spread all though the tank and changing the filter doesn't disrupt as large percentage wise.
If you are a bit bolder and there is real reason to get it done sooner rather than slower, the results can depend on how close your load is running to what the filter, etc. can handle. Pick a number out of the air like 25% to be lost. Does that give you major heartache or just a small bump to deal with until it shapes up again?
Unfortunatly there are very few hard and firm answers to many of the issues we need to know about.
Sometimes we go the slow and steady route but there are times when speed and risk are required.
If you are a bit bolder and there is real reason to get it done sooner rather than slower, the results can depend on how close your load is running to what the filter, etc. can handle. Pick a number out of the air like 25% to be lost. Does that give you major heartache or just a small bump to deal with until it shapes up again?
Unfortunatly there are very few hard and firm answers to many of the issues we need to know about.
Sometimes we go the slow and steady route but there are times when speed and risk are required.
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Never thought of this question. I'm running an Aqua Clear 30 on my 40 gallon, and looking at replacing with an Eheim 2071 pro 3.
I'm definitely a newbie but I just switched tanks over. I was suprised how quickly my tank cycled. I don't have much of a load on the new tank as I went from a 28 gallon to a 92. I had an Ehiem 2215 on the 28 gal and the new tank came with a Cascade 1500 As soon as I got the new filter I put some of the media from it into my existing filter. I ran it that way for a couple of weeks. Then I put the media back, along with some of the original media from the established filter. I had to do some other stuff since I was changing tanks, but I cycled the new tank with a couple of large goldfish from my pond. (dirty buggers). The new filter was knocking down the ammonia pretty quickly.
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Going from a smaller to a much larger tank really gives even less chance of trouble. If you keep the same fish load and like in this case have near three times as much water to use, the whole question becomes much easier. The same amount of pollution (ammonia?) and diluted far more. If you move only the media and do lose a certain amount, it is still not much problem because you dilute the result three times.
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