from cartridges to sponges???

[bettons]

hi ya'll...

Ok, I have a penguin 125 BIO-wheel in my 10 Gal. It uses cartridges.

But I was wondering If I could remove the cartridge, buy a couple of small sponges designed for filters and use it instead of buying every few weeks new cartridges.

am I better off leaving the cartridge without changing it?

If I use sponges, do you think this would overflow my filter?

[amanichen]

am I better off leaving the cartridge without changing it?

Any mechanical media (filter floss/sponge) in a filter needs to be rinsed regularly (use old tank water during water changes.)

Any chemical filtration media (carbon/zeolite) needs to be changed once a month.

The reason they say to change the cartridge once a month is because of the carbon in the cartridge. Carbon only stays effective for about a month at a time. The mechanical part of the cartridge can have a good rinse, and go back into the filter.

Forcing mechanical and chemical media together is a poor design. Hagen Aquaclears, for instance, have separate media packets. Tetra's Whisper series also has filter bags where you can replace the carbon. But, Marineland still forces them to be together. It's only in their high end filters that you get additional media bins which you can use to customize your filtration.

With your filter, you can re-use an existing cartridge provided the mechanical part of it is thoroughly cleaned (knowing that the carbon inside of it won't be doing much of anything.)

If I use sponges, do you think this would overflow my filter?

Try it and find out. The design of these filters forces the water to flow horizontaly through a vertical cartridge. Keep this in mind when you put something in there.

[bettons]

Ok, thank you for the help.

I'll see if I can find sponges with somewhat the same density, probably those that the duetto filter use. if it doesn't work I will keep the cartridge.