Most likely fine. How big is the tank, what kind of filter? What mechanical filtration, and what do the cartridges do?

 

I would be cautious taking out any filtration media. From what you describe I would use a toothbrush to lightly clean the cartridge in a bowl of tank water and then replace the cartridge and throw that dirty water out. Perhaps the into of all the new plants is the major change causing the filter issue.

How are you cleaning the that filter and how often? Are you cleaning the cartridge with the filter media in it under tap water? If so I would recommend you stop doing that and simply clean it with distilled or syphoned tank water (from tank cleaning). If you are over cleaning the filter media/cartridge every time you clean the tank you may be disrupting the bacteria levels and causing major imbalances in your tank. Not sure if that's the case here, maybe something else is going on in your tank... like over feeding, an algae bloom, etc.

Running water tests on your tank would be a good idea. If your levels are good then maybe it's fine to go without the cartridge itself a few days, but if you have been battling high nitrates and nitrites or ammonia constantly I'd be concerned that you are unknowingly affecting the nitrogen cycle with your cleaning methods. If this is the case I'd add a liquid bacteria boosting supplement to help your tank level back out and just alter the way you clean the filter media.

I hope your tank does well.

 

^^
Everything up there. You do NOT want to remove that cartridge for good, it's where much of the useful bacteria is.

 

Ok thanks guys! It's a 10g , aqueon quiet flow, it's like a blue thing that goes in front of the cartridge , the cartridges I guess just pick up the plant debre , every week I check it and see if it needs done , probably been 2 weeks, I usually clean it under tap water which I know not to do because every time I try to do it in tank water I already throw it out , acually I've had a really big algae bloom recently I've been trying to get rid of, I will test my water today also, and see if I can get the cartridge and a bigger filter


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I too was cleaning out my cartridges on a weekly basis. I then added a prefilter to the intake tube and probably clean the cartridges once a month.

 

Your Tank

Hi guys. , after I did my water change today I decided to check the filter cartridge like I always do, this thing was black! I just cleaned it the week before, maybe due to more plants?????? Long story short I can't clean it, so will the tank be fine without a filter cartridge for a few days? It has some mechanical filtration built in , and some purigen if that helps. thanks ,


Nick

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Hello Nick...

The tank will be fine. Just up the frequency or the amount of tank water you change. The water change is the true filter, not the mechanical contrivance that just moves dirty water around the tank. The filter is just a piece of gear for mixing oxygen into the tank water and allowing carbon dioxide to escape.

Change out more water until you get the filter back together.

B

 

Slosh the cartridge around in some tank water. It does not have to be totally clean. Just shake off the loose stuff.
If you really want to replace it (and the company will be happy you are buying more of their stuff) then run the new one and the old one for a week or two until the new one has a bit of a starter colony of bacteria.

Other options include:
Better vacuuming of the tank so you remove the debris before it gets caught be the filter.
Different filter with more media, a second one of the same (2 filters on one tank) or a larger one, perhaps Aquaclear product line.
Add more media to the filter you have, such as with the pre-filter sponge.

 

This is where some timing is involved with what the answer should be. Sounds like you have a cartridge that may have some carbon and a second one which may be designed to build up a good colony of the good bacteria. So whether you need the cartridge or how bad may depend on how long the tank has been in use so that bacteria is growing on all the surfaces. Also there is the question of how close to being overstocked you might be. If you are pretty close to being at full capacity for the filter and the tank is not at least several months old, tanking out one filter cartridge may show up as an ammonia or nitrite spike. An older tank with bacteria scattered throughout may not miss the bacteria. removed.

 

It's a 5 month old tank, under what the filter limit is, I just opted to get a aqueon 20 so I figured the water will be cleaner , I had to remove the other filter, only thing I moved over was the bag of purigen, will this throw it into a mini cycle? So just watch the water parameters?


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The filter ratings are sometimes kind of a wild guess as it is not so much how much water there is in a tank but how much load from fish dying plants and any kind of stuff that decays. Not talking about the mechanical cleaning to make it look nice but the bio-filtering. For rating they kind of assume a normal load and go from there.
But then on a tank that age, things should be pretty well set on most surfaces and taking out one filter cartridge is not likely to be a great big deal. That type of filter is meant to have the cartridge with the carbon and floss type stuff changed. Then there should still be enough bacteria hanging out all over the tank and in the other little cartridge.
Kind of a guess so it will be good to watch for any signs of Ammonia or nitrite. But then the fish may also be one of the first things to show something not quite right.
When there is doubt about causing a spike of some sort, one of the best ways to be proactive is to do a bit more water changing.

Assuming it is not hard to change out a couple gallons, I might lean toward doing an extra water change just so I could sleep better knowing that I'm heading off trouble IF there was any coming.
You can read all kinds of posts about how to cure fish but it is always much easier to head off the things that cause any disease. Clean water is cheap and easy compared to the trauma of trying to treat the fish?