[AquaticLife] Replacing internal filter
I’m glad you tested the sponge first. I figured it wasn’t the proper type of sponge for use in aquariums. In another forum, a member said they go to their local crafts store, JoAnn’s, which you likely do not have in your area, but they said they can buy the off-white colored (natural) open-cell foam in squares that are sold for use in re-padding a chair. They say they can easily breath through this foam and have used it in their aquariums without problems. It’s a very small pore open-cell foam and is very inexpensive also compared to the specialized foam we can buy from various online fish stores.
Since your tank is overstocked, it would be best to over-filter the tank also… along with doing the more frequent PWC’s as I believe you are already doing. Only running the UGF once or twice a day isn’t really helping with the biological filtration in your tank… which is something you definitely need in an overstocked tank. Further, the added agitation creates better surface agitation for proper gas exchange to keep the O2 levels up and allow for CO2 and other bad gas exchange at the surface. Since you say you are getting too much agitation when the two filters are running, try making sure the tank is filled up as much as possible. Next, try changing the direction of the discharge of your filters so they do not impact your plants as much. You could also have the discharge hitting a solid decoration first to spread out the discharge stream. The fish should be able to handle the water movement without much problem.
I run 10X filtration on my fancy goldfish tank… two large filter systems moving a total of 650 gallons per hour and my fancy goldfish can handle that so I’m sure your fish can handle 10X filtration as well.
Do you have a power head running the UGF filter?
If so, you could add a piece of filter floss or open cell foam over the discharge of the power head and use a nylon tie to hold it on. This way, the discharge from the power head will not be such a strong spray in one direction and would be less of an impact also.
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
