10 Gallon Tank Filter Change

[101DalmatianMollies]

Hey everybody,

So the filter on my 10 gallon tank is about... 7 years old now, and it's showing it's age. I've noticed that it can't really push through the filter media anymore as the waterfall doesn't have the same power as before. This of course isn't good as I've got a number of fish and snails in there (my red ramshorn snail exploded with babies so I have at least 8 babies that I can count LOL)

I'm going to get a new filter, more than likely another Aquaclear as the Aqueon is pretty basic. I might do Aquaclear or Marineland I'm not sure yet, price may be the determining factor.

That being said, what do I do when changing the filter over? I don't want to shock the tank in to recycling as it may hurt all my fishies! What is the best way to go about changing it over?

Thanks!

[Mike L]

 If your going HOB go with an aquaclear. In the long run they are cheaper to run as the media can be washed in tank water and reused and the media area is bigger. That said install the new filter and media but omit the carbon. In it's place install as much of the media from the old filter as you can. Should have no problems. There is lots of beneficial bacteria in the tank substrate and décor anyway.
Mike

[101DalmatianMollies]

I quite like the aquaclear, I have it on my 33gal and it works well. I also like being able to use different media (sponge, bio, carbon, etc). My aqueon just has the one carbon cartridge, so I find it very limited.

Thanks!

[Jeff1192]

Aquaclear without a doubt. These things are workhorses, you can put in pretty much whatever media you want and I've never had one fail.

Jeff

[lucius]

That being said, what do I do when changing the filter over? I don't want to shock the tank in to recycling as it may hurt all my fishies! What is the best way to go about changing it over?

Run both your old and new filter at the same time for a few weeks.

Go Aquaclear!