Hello (happy new year to you all!) sorry not been on for a while - 3yr old and 8yr old keeping me busy and gone back to work full time!!! ARRRRGGGHHHH!! Rant Over.

Anyway, I have noticed that my tank has lost water and on further inspection have found that the overhead filtration system has over-filled and leaked down the back of the tank. I'm not 100% sure why this has happened but I have taken out one of the white filter pads (see picture) on the left and the level has reduced slightly. I am not due to change the top white pads for a bit, I have however deviated from the norm and bought the pads which are not necessarily for the tank and cut them to fit which is what the fish shop bloke said would be cheaper.

Anyone got any comments/suggestions on this. Do I need to have both the carbon pads and the white pads in both compartments and are these causing the overfill - do the generic pads need to be changed more frequently - any help appreciated.

Have attached two pics - one of the top of the tank (ie filtration system) and one of the tank - just because I love it so much (its my view of it every night from a comfy chair)!!

Ta

Debs

Happy New year to you too! You sound like you've got your hands full at the mo then lol

Pics not showing (check their size when uploading). Whilst I'm not familiar with this tank or the filter, have been googling to get some info.

Website quote
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Bet that made you smile!

Wet/dry trickle filter it seems. Comes usually with 2 types of media, black 'normal' sponge media and a combo of white filter floss impregnated with carbon between 2 sheets stitched together. Is that right?

Stockist here suggests you can buy other filter media to replace such as hoops and plain white filter wool.

http://www.aquarium-parts.co.uk/acata ... aStyle_AR_620_Spares.html

Carbon is not required 24/7. Most here keep it back just to remove meds. It's costly to use and has a limited lifespan as it gets saturated within a few weeks or so.

I'd be tempted to just stick with the black 'normal' filter sponges (on this tank they are not carbon related as many other 'black' filter medias are) and add your white filter wool. Remove the carbon inserts and see if that helps

Not many here use this type of filter as far as I know. A good internal like the larger Eheim powerball can easily cope with a 90 litres as you may wish to consider a switch over at some point perhaps.

Generic filter media, works exactly the same as branded filter media. Filter wool is changed each week usually (that site I linked to has two pieces for £8 so I'm not surprised you are now cutting your own!) foam media pads should last for years.

Only need to replace when they start crumbling. I've had some of mine 5/6 years at least.

Hi Deb,

Have you been cleaning out the tube that trickles the water down to the filters? It can get clogged with fish poop and plant matter. I wonder if that's causing you problems? Are you rinsing out some of the pads now'n again in old tank water? The top one gets extremely mucky.
I myself trimmed down larger pads and squeezed more white floss in, and also have a second layer of black pads (NOT carbon), and have never had any probs. Hope you solve it?
Please do attach pics again, would love to see your set up :)

Thanks violet and mixtapes.

Sorry the pics didn't upload - will get hubby to look at the files (am not good with techy stuff - much prefer people and animals!).

I am pretty regular in cleaning and do the pipes and impellier once a month. now that I have taken the white pads out the water level has come down quite a bit.

I have ordered more pads which fit the tank (£17 for 20 white pads and 8 black off ebay) will see how they fair, but am inclined to only put the white pad under the trickle pipe and see how we go. I have had the tank for a long time and don't know why this has happened now. My gut feeling is the "cheaper" pads. Will see how we go.

Now, I need to move the tank which is on the aquaone cabinet - I suspect the carpet underneath is quite wet and need to clean it and dry it.

I don't want to stress the fish in any way - how would you advise I move the tank (how low can i take the water and should I leave the fish in to move it), - I need to lift the tank onto another unit to then move the cabinet to get to the carpet - hope this makes sense. Am happy to move the tank and leave it in a new position for a day or two whilst I make sure the carpet is sorted (need to also make sure the floorboards are dry - don't want them to rot!!!)

Thanks again.

Debs

Funnily enough when we were doing our water change today, we had a little overflow accident! Has never happened to us before- the impeller wasn't connected properly to the pipe and the impeller went a bit mad in this case.
Maybe this is what happened?
I'd be suprised if it was the pads that caused it, though I suppose it can't be ruled out. So right now what do you still have in your filter?
Certainly should have noodles underneath the floss?

I run 2 aqua one tanks both with the trickle filtration system and had the same problem occur.
In mine the filter pad had lodged against the water outlet partially blocking it. This caused the water level in the filter to rise enough to drip over the back of the tank [the air tube for the air pump sits along the inside of the filter and this was acting like a sort of wick allowing water to seep up and over the back].
Was easy to solve by rearranging the filter pads and moving the air tube in slightly.
This was the one and only problem I've had with this type of filter in 5 years.
I love this type of filtration. It is so easy to maintain, easy to add more filter medium, carbon if required etc.
Would def have this over internal filters any day!