12g JBJ - ever change anything in the filter?

[icemonkey24]

Are you supposed to change anything in the back filter area - like, ever at any point? Aren't you supposed to change the carbon filter once every 6 months??? Does anyone know where to buy these products if i do need to puchase them?

[epapir]

I was told to change the carbon filter every 6 weeks at the beginning. JBJ make a replacement to theirs or you can use something like AquaClear Activated Carbon.

 

E

[Nickeleye]

I say don't use any of that stuff at all. Just fill the back with LR and put a fuge light over it and call it good.

[Genin]

i filled my first and second chamber with live rock for natural biological filtration. if you want to use carbon, i would change it every 4 weeks.

[Nickeleye]

IMO use carbon as little as possible. Instead try to discover why your phosphates are high enough to cause the problem algae.

 

Rubble rock in back is a good idea. The more porous the better.

[SaltCreep]

Carbon is basically a water polisher. If changed regularly it will only help. Absorbing phosphates is only one if its benefits.

 

I also wouldnt suggest filling your back chambers up with rubble. The design of those back chambers allow for a tremendous amount of detritus build up. The more you put in the chambers to aide in creating dead spots the worse off the health of your tank will be.

 

When my tank was stock I tried it everyway imaginable and found the best results with the foam pad in chamber 1, a bag of chemipure in chamber 2, and a heater and return pump in chamber 3. That worked the best until I completely redid the whole design. There's a thread around here somewhere showing what I did.

[SaltCreep]

here it is. I now have sand and carribean lettuce rock instead of the limestone(experiment gone wrong) but the equipment and design are still the same.

 

http://nano-reef.com/forums/showthread.php...&threadid=60868