Hi,

The ones that came with my 330l tank are 2x Aqua One canister filter CF - 1000.

Just wanted to check these are good enough for the tank size?

These are rated for up to 250 litres and turnover is 100 litres per hour. Filters never produce the throughput claimed though

If I remember rightly your tank is 330 litres? (Please fill in profile!). With the two filters running you've got plenty there so no problems.

Sorry, I did start to fill in my profile and got distracted and forgot to finish it.

I was trying to look it up myself but this works Internet is terrible, every page I click is blocked :(

I never realised I should replace the bits in the filter till I read something today, I'm not sure what all the pieces are called so not sure what to look for.

Starting at the bottom it has black plastic balls, white ceramic things, a green sponge, a black sponge and finally at the top a soggy white sponge (possibly wool?). I know it's not a good idea to change everything at once but these have been in there for about 5 years!!

Should I slowly replace everything immediately? Then how often should I replace it all from there?

Sorry for the stupid questions.

Check what the different coloured sponges are for, but if they are simply graded biological media (i.e. coarse, medium etc) then don't replace unless they are falling to bits. Same goes for the bio-balls uness you want to replace them with an improved bio- media. The floppy white wool needs replacing but holds little bacteria so is not risky to switch. You can buy filter wool for pond filters in bulk on a roll and cut to size which works out a lot cheaper.

Finally got onto a parts website, the black one just says -

Aquis 1000 black fine sponge pad (2 pack) 35ppi for aquamarine 900
The aqua one sponge pads for the squid 1000 canister filter for aquamarine 900 trap solids and provide a home for filtration bacteria.

- Large surface area for bacterial attachment.
- Finer pore size traps more solids.
- Need cleaning regularly.
- Change every 6 Months to maintain performance.

It still looks in perfect condition and was thoroughly cleaned before I restarted the tank. Is the 'change every 6 months' just a way to try to make more money from us?

Pretty much. In some cases (Eheim, Juwel, and a fair few others) the black sponges contain carbon, which is useful for absorbing medications when you've finished your course. It usually lasts a month or so, and can't be recharged. Its the sort of thing that can be useful to have "just in case" but is unnecessary for day-to-day maintenance.

In the Juwel filters the green media is a nitrate-reduction sponge (and there are similar products available for other filters, not necessarily the same colour). These last a couple of months or so. Personally I think you're better off doing more regular water changes and re-evaluating your stock if you find tank nitrates are consistently high. If your nitrates are high out of the tap you're better off investing in either a nitrate filter or a Reverse Osmosis (RO) filter that can be plumbed in or installed for doing water changes.

Other than that most of the alternative media you'll see are various chemical filters (zeolites, etc) or things to adjust water parameters (softening pillows). Most of the time you either won't need them, or there are better ways of achieving the same effect.

I'll need to recheck the tap nitrates but I'm pretty much sitting around 5 everytime I test the tank water, in fact the last set of results came out at 0-0-0 PH-7. I rechecked the Nitrate because I've never seen it at 0 before, it appears it's not a bad thing though (well, it's probably not great for the plants!).

Should I replace some of the white ceramic things each time I clean the filter?

Replace ceramic hula hoops? No, they will last for years

I'd not bother unless you really, really want to. 5ppm nitrates out of your tap (and especially in your tank) is absolutely fine. For most fish as long as nitrates are below 40ppm (ideally 20ppm, but this isn't always possible) then they shouldn't have any problems.

Nitrates above zero are absolutely fine for plants. Lots of people use their old tank water on the garden and houseplants.

Hula hoops would have been the way I would have described them too! A few of them have broken but most still look fine.

Thanks for the info/help everyone, I'll have a look at getting some of the wool stuff :)