Hi again everyone. I was just wondering whether it is right to keep the black filter stuff in the filter all the time? I have read elsewhere that this is carbon and shouldn't be used and I have been all the time. Does it matter?

Hiya mousey, what sort of filter do you have? If it is carbon, it doesnt need to be used unless you need to remove meds from the tank water, but let us know what sort of filter you have and hopefully someone else will confirm that for you.

sorry Diana I have put it in my sig but it's not showing for some reason. It's a AquaStyle 620 and has a filter in the lid.

Ah, it's there now! :lol:

Same tank that I have, mousey.

You don't need carbon in the filter on a daily basis, especially if you are using plant fertilizers as the carbon just removes the trace elements as I found when my plants started looking miserable after a couple of weeks.

What I did was let the original carbon cartridges in there as they deactivate after about 6-8 weeks. They then become an extra surface for the bacteria to colonize. I then put additional white filter wool on top of the cartridges and that's what I rinse out every month. I have a spare set of new cartridges in the cupboard in case I ever need to run carbon to remove meds.

So do you think I should leave it in now, or take it out? Do you have to wrap extra stuff round the foam or is it ok as it is?

Hiya webster, i think you can leave it there if it has been there a while. I dont have an in lid filter so am not sure the benefits of adding any extra filter stuff, but am sure Mary will answer for you soon.

sorry mousey, just realised that I have called you webster - osorry about that mate, it's been a long day!

You can just leave the cartridges in there if you like and just let them "deactivate". Then you just lay the extra filter wool on top of them. You can also add extra filter wool to internal filters, driver. It all provides extra surface area for the bacteria to colonize. Plus it's easy to rinse out once a month.

You can also just leave the cartridges as is but another reason that I put the filter wool in is that, eventually the white foam attached to the carbon cartridges will disintegrate so, in this way, you have an extra filter surface already colonized.