Just moved tank and water's all murky

[Caper]

Just a quick note. You should never leave your filter off for any length of time unless you are cleaning/moving.

Caper

[RochelleMay]

With my recent murky tank problem. I just went to LFS farm and got that finer holed sponge for $6 and also have the larger holed sponge on top that came with the filter.

So by the time the water goes through my larger holed expensive sponge its already pretty clean its just the cheap sponge underneath that gets cleaned weekly and then replaced atleast monthly cause it is so cheap.

The cheap stuff i use is Blue Circle Filter wool in a clear bag with orange label and blue writing.

:lol:

[whetu]

...The cheap stuff i use is Blue Circle Filter wool in a clear bag with orange label and blue writing.

:lol:

Yep - that's the same stuff I'm using at the moment - way cheaper than the authentic eheim stuff. But there is an even cheaper option! Go to a fabric/craft shop (like Spotlight) and buy the stuff they use for inside quilts. It is EXACTLY the same stuff and costs a fraction of the price. You buy it by the metre so you can get a year's supply for a few dollars!

As for whether the authentic ehaim stuff is any better than the cheap stuff - yes it may well be. The eheim white floss is a different texture to the cheap stuff. It's a bit coarser so it lasts longer and you can rinse and re-use it. The cheap stuff is single use only.

My only real concern would be if by using the cheap stuff you are causing the filter motor to work harder, and thereby shortening the life of the filter. However, running it with clogged filter media would cause more resistance than that, so IMO it shouldn't be a problem.

[whetu]

By the way, I have been using my eheim with the cheap filter material for several years now, and have had no problems (not that I would expect to). I don't use any carbon in the filter. I have carbon in reserve just in case I ever have to use it in an emergency - if I quickly had to remove some nasty chemicals from the water or remove some meds or something - but this has never happened so the carbon is still nice and dry in the drawer!

I have two eheim filters running on my 220 litre tank (overkill I know). They are set up as follows (top down):

Filter #1:

cheap white floss

genuine eheim ehfi substrat (looks like white rocks or kitty litter)

genuine eheim blue sponge

genuine eheim ehfi mech (looks like macaroni tubes)

Filter #2:

cheap white floss

genuine eheim stuff (looks like little white marbles)

genuine eheim blue sponge

genuine eheim ehfi mech

Remember the water passes through the filter from the bottom up, so the coarse stuff goes in the bottom and the fine filter wool in the top.

I only ever replace the white layer. The rest just get rinsed out and put back into the filter. Seems to work fine for me.