Filter rules

Question
Hello,
How often should i replace the filter catridge?
On the cartridge box it says every 2weeks, but does this not remove the bacteria too?

AND
How often should i vacum clean the aquarium?

Answer
Hi Arun,

The kind of cartridge you are talking about does need to be replaced regularly. How often depends on your bioload. If you're keeping messy fish, like goldfish or cichlids, you will notice that in a week it will already start to look dirty, and by two weeks it will be really brown and slimy. It's time to change the cartridge. This is expensive and really sort of a waste, since you do remove bacteria with each change out - which is why I recommend to everyone that they switch to re-usable, rinseable media like the kind that AquaClear sells. Go to google.com and type aquaclear and read more about these filters. There are lots of different sizes, and surely one of them fits your filter. In my hang on back filters, I have AquaClear filter media - foam sponges and Biomax - even if they are not all AquaClears. The reason is simple. All I have to do is rinse this media with dechlorinated water or water from the aquarium, and it's clean enough and ready to be used again! No bacteria is lost, but all of the obvious gunk is removed. Simple.

The answer to your second question is - it depends. If you have messy fish, you may need to gravel vacuum once a month. Basically, you should vacuum the gravel whenever you see that it becomes dirty or slimy. If you are not overfeeding and have a light fish load, you may not need to gravel vacuum for 6 months! However, if you feed often (more than once a day) and have messy fish, the detritus will build on the gravel and begin to look unattractive, and also it will acidify your tank to have that decomposing material in there. So, evaluate how dirty your gravel is and then decide how often to gravel vacuum. More than once a month should never be necessary - if it is, you are overfeeding!

I hope that helps, take care.
Nicole