Black Spots in My Filter Floss...Seachem Claims This is Dangerous "Anaerobic Bacteria"

[Kaskade10729]

I completely understand that; I was merely saying all your points were respectfully taken and will be considered.

As of right now, the water is looking significantly more polished since the Purigen has been running in the AC; I'll let you know if something changes...

 

[Magnus919]

In over 40 years, I've never replaced filter floss, just rinsed it. As matter of fact, the floss in a couple of my filters must be 35 to 40 years old.

Way way back in the late 80's / early 90's I worked in a LFS that was built in the 70's. Most of what we had to work with was late 70's / early 80's vintage and just kept working. I'd gone back after having kids of my own and well into the 2000's the shop was largely the same. I even recognized my own hand writing on price tags from 20 years before.

Every tank in that shop had it's own power filters... usually Whisper 3 or Whisper 5. Filter pads were almost never ever discarded. But once a week we'd do major tank maintenance... big water changes and filter cleaning. We'd take filter pads back to the back room, set them on top of the wire part of a bird cage (to get it up away from the bottom of the sink basin) and blast them with a garden hose. Both sides, back and forth until the water came off clear and the pad looked new again. Then walk them back to the tank, grab the next set of pads from the next tank, and do it again.

Those pads lasted for years in most cases. Some tanks did go through them, but usually those were the tanks with creatures that found their way into the filter box (fiddler crabs, raphael cats, etc.) or predators that made a big mess where the filters would suck up hard bits like bone fragments, goldfish scales, and snail shell fragments. For the community fish, the filter media seemed to last indefinitely with good weekly cleanings.

 

[Kaskade10729]

So then can I assume the floss cartridges of the Aqueon and the floss layer I placed in the AquaClear can be routinely just rinsed out and reused?

Incidentally, I'm not seeing those black spots anymore in my floss...

 

[fishorama]

Yep, you can rinse & reuse both many times, AC sponges too.. But like some things, they aren't always what they used to be. I've noticed more recent cartridges seem to stretch & get thinner (baggy & too thin). I once bought "knock off" AC sponges & they are a very poor substitute to old AC sponges. I don't know if AC still has those really good sponges or not, I have some that are at least 20 years old, a little browner but still work great in their original filters.

Floss I've already said, I throw it out after a while...but I don't use it all the time. Like TTA, I prefer an easier to clean to poly pad in general. Water cost & time come into the equation for me.

 

[Kaskade10729]

Yep, you can rinse & reuse both many times, AC sponges too.. But like some things, they aren't always what they used to be. I've noticed more recent cartridges seem to stretch & get thinner (baggy & too thin). I once bought "knock off" AC sponges & they are a very poor substitute to old AC sponges. I don't know if AC still has those really good sponges or not, I have some that are at least 20 years old, a little browner but still work great in their original filters.

Floss I've already said, I throw it out after a while...but I don't use it all the time. Like TTA, I prefer an easier to clean to poly pad in general. Water cost & time come into the equation for me.

I'm gonna tell ya a little story about AC sponges....the last time we set up this tank, the Hagen sponge we bought to replace the 110's original (because that one had trapped a nasty bacterial infection my goldfish tank came down with) had, after awhile (not too long), become deformed and misshapen to the point I had to replace it.

I later found out they're not making these "foam blocks" the same anymore, probably to dissuade people from reusing them for years on end (so they don't lose money). As it stands, I can tell you this: The Aqueon "starter" cartridges that came with my QuietFlow 75 clogged up after several days (when we first started the tank up THIS time), and dunking them in removed tank water didn't clean them out. They were as good as done, so I had to put in two replacement carts from a three-pack we had purchased...it's clear that the "replacement" carts/pads are made FAR better and thicker than the ones that come in the box (something that was confirmed when I did some Googling and saw someone on Amazon talk about these cartridges).

All of that being said, I wonder if I have been doing the media loading in the AquaClear 110 all wrong all these years...

You know the gray media basket in the ACs? You know how they have those little "fork handles/clips" that are, I thought, supposed to hold different levels of media down in the basket so the water doesn't push them up? I have been placing the foam block on bottom, and then forcing the top corners of the block down under those little handles, to secure it -- but when I do this, I notice that (even if it's brand new) the foam will "bulge up" in the center, so the layer on top of it (in my case, the floss) won't sit 100-percent flat.

Is the block SUPPOSED to be "tucked under" these four "clips" or should it just sit at the bottom of the basket with those clips/holders kind of grabbing it from the middle (if you can visualize what I mean)?

Let me see if I can explain it a bit better...

Here's what the basket looks like from the top down:



Now, you see those little "teeth" that line the sides? I stuff the sponge under those, at the bottom, to kind of hold it down...but should they be grabbing the foam by the middle section instead?

Now, in this above pic, you see how the foam at the bottom is kind of flat and even? When I hook mine under those "thumbs," the middle section -- even when new -- bulges up a bit...is this something to even worry about?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The second one I got in 2002 used. I bought a ton of fish related stuff from a senior graduating from college and who preferred to sell it rather than move it all home. It is an AC 150 aka 30. It is still running today and 1/2 of the sponge loading is used sponge that came with it. Back then AC did not offer the ceramic stuff. My first AC was a NIB 200 (50) bought in 2001and i still have it running as well.

In so years in the hobby I have owned about 30 Aquaclears. I still have 16 running which inclides at least one of every model. They all pretty much use the same media. All have two AC sponges or Poret foam cubes. Almost all have a layer of floss between them.

If you remove the basket, you will not get decent flow. here is the flow diageram for AC filters from the Hagen site:

As you can wee the water is directed to the bottom of the media well and then flows up though all the media. The basket sits in the media well such that there is clear space under it. Hagen is not foolish. The know some folks may not rinse media as often as they should. this tends to clog the media. The result is that the flow tries to lift the media upwards. The little barbs are designed to prevet the media from moving far. But they cannot prevent the bulging effect. The longer the sponge, the easier for it to bulge. My AC 500 (110) has a 20 ppi Poret foam block on the bottom. This is a rigid type foam. It never bulges upward.

If your media is bulging up within a week, you have it wrong or else you need more filtration to share the load. If one places the sponge without the basket so that the sponge rests on the bottom of the well, the flow will enter it through the side. Hagen protects itself from cloggin even more by making the basket a grill and not solid. The allows the water to flow in the entire side where the inpeller is should flow from the bottom dstart to clog to the point it is an issue.. However, the ideal flow path is as it is shown in the diagram. The water will tend to flow though the entire soponge and then the media above when it enters from underneath v.s, from only the end. Basically this reduces the areas of the sponge that will get the nutrients and oxygen etc. the bacteria need.

Floss should be the last stop in the flow though the filter. However, this is not possible in an AquaClear as it would simply get pushed out of the filter easily. Because I only use foam and floss, I have to put the floss between the two foams. I will not use the AC ceramic, I consider them inferior to foam blocks because the porosity is too fine. Media clogging is the enemy of filtration. Ceramics are hard to clean once clogged.

Bio-media does not filter anything. Bio-media merely supplies a nice place for the bacteria and archaea to colonize and live. They do all the filtering.

 

[Kaskade10729]

I know all this. My media isn't bulging up in a week or a few days. I have everything placed right in the filter. What I want to know is whether the sponge should be "clipped" with those "teeth" that kind of hold it in place, because when I load the basket like this, the center of the foam -- even BRAND NEW OUT OF THE BOX -- kind of bulges up in the center (because the corners are being held down by those "teeth").

 

[dudley]

The stock foam is meant to just set on the bottom of the holder and the 'teeth' or nubs are meant to grip the middle sides of the foam.

 

[Kaskade10729]

The stock foam is meant to just set on the bottom of the holder and the 'teeth' or nubs are meant to grip the middle sides of the foam.

THAT'S what I wanted to know...thanks Dudley.

Guess I've been doing this all wrong, all along. I'll fix this when I do my water change today.

 

[fishorama]

I notice in your pic that the bottom foam on the intake side isn't quite fitted flat & squarely in the bottom corner. I try to flip my sponges at least once in a while if I can tell. Hmm, just going by memory the "thumbs" (barbs, nubs) are more toward the top but Dee could be right. I lay my grid flat, stack the media then lift up the sides to slide back in the filter box. You don't want to create "thumb grooves" in the sponge sides (eventually) by jamming it down all the time.

But it also could be the sponge ends are not getting rinsed quite as well as the middle so it bulges a bit where flow is better. I tend to wait until flow slows noticeably to clean, so it takes a long while to rinse & squeeze. I have a black sink so it's harder to tell if detritus is still rinsing out. But even with stainless steel I put a white plate (or dish or plastic lid) in the sink to see better when I "think" I'm done, there often more crap.

I've forgotten, do you clean both filters every week? Alternate is better, neither should need cleaning every week or even 2. Your floss looks kind of thick & not too even, but it's still fluffy & new in your pic...Is this still with just 2 goldfish?