AQUA ONE MAXI FILTER

Could somebody please advise me on the following.

The Aqua one tank came complete with the Aquaone 101 filter.  This is non adjustable heightwise as it fits in the back compartment and the outlet goes through a ready prepared hole.

This means that the moving water is around 1+ deep in the tank.

The water does move (a plant leaf will eventually travel around the surface) but to my mind it isn't very fast.

Today I attached a 1" piece of garden irrigation hose to the outlet and then put an "L" shape adaptor on it which brought the water to the surface, like a little waterfall.
It was, in fact, a little fierce as it was hitting the glass cover so I have turned it slightly to the right.
I've lost the waterfall effect but the flow is still quite prominent.

It makes a lovely moving water effect on the plants but isn't any noisier.  I also have an airstone which is popping bubbles again the glass

Now, am I over complicating my life?

I'm trying to get as much surface water movement in this little tank as I understand it improves oxygen??

Have I really achieved this. Am I risking stressing the pump?

Should I just go back to the way it was.

I'm not sure I've explained myself very well.

PS. As soon as I have fish to sit and watch I'm hoping I will be too busy to keep bothering you all.   

Excitement of a new hobby and all that

Am I talking rubbish because I've misread something and was just anxious to be inventing something !!

Thanks for reading

Thanks Sue. It's not the 101F, presumably the one down as it only came with a couple of reducers and the venture.

Too clever for my own good!!

I'll leave it for now as it looks very pretty. Just like a babbling brook with the light shining through it.

If the plants start to look battered I'll take it off.

The filter does have a little adjuster bar but it doesn't seem to want to move and I'm frightened to push too hard in case it breaks altogether.

I have finally found your filter - all I had to do was download the Aqua Nano instructions on the Aqua One website!

OK, the filter is nothing like mine. Mine is the smallest in this range
The instructions for yours says it has a sponge and ceramic noodles, although some on-line shops says it has carbon cartridges? Which do you have?

So many people think that if the shop/manufacturer says to do it, it must be fine, unfortunately.

I asked about your filter media as manufacturers tell you to change it - to make them money and never mind about those hard-grown bacteria living on it.

Sponges take years to wear out. Until then, wash it in water that you've removed from the tank during a water change. Squeeze it gently, you don't want to be so rough you dislodge the biofilm with its bacteria. The time to change it is when it goes shapeless and holey, but cut in two or three and change one bit a month.

Ceramic media is the same. Change it when it crumbles, but wash it until then. However, since yours in in a cartridge it is possible that the bag part of the cartridge might get clogged beyond washing. If this does happen, would the filter work if you cut the bag open and put the stuff inside into a mesh bag?

Carbon is different. It is a hangover from before anyone knew about the filter bacteria and isn't actually needed on a routine basis. It removes the brown that comes out of wood, it removes medication when treatment has finished, and that's about it. It gets full and stops doing those things after a few days. You can just leave it there as it is a reasonable home for the bacteria. There is a slight risk that if your fish ever get sick, the medication could be more attracted to the carbon than what is on it now and displace it, removing the medication from the tank.
I know what I would do, but it could prolong the cycle a bit. If the carbon and ceramic cartridges are the same size, I'd swap the carbon ones for more ceramic ones now before you have grown too many bacteria. But as I say, you can just leave the carbon ones there and never change them till the carbon disintegrates.

Whatever you do, never change more than a quarter of the total media at once, and wait a month before changing the next bit.

Hello Sue, (Or anyone really !!)

When I got my freebies the other day there was a packet with 4 Fluvel sponges.

If the carbon filter is not much good should I  take it out and put in a piece of the Fluvel (looks quite open pored) sponge cut to size.

Also, in the second  compartment, there is already a piece of black sponge. Appears to be plenty of room for another bit as the compartment seems only half full.  Would it be of any benefit to add a piece of the Fluvel here too.  I would then have a spare piece I could remove to quick start my little hospital tank.

It seems odd to me in any case that the sponge which I assumed would be the stuff to collect the bigger debris is the bit closest to the filter. Would it not be better at the start of filtration, ie where the water is being sucked in through the slots or am I talking out of the back of my head?

There are 3 compartments at the rear of the tank. In the compartment with the slots (right hand side of tank) I THINK that first in the flow is the carbon cartridge, then the ceramic. That's what the diagram appears to be showing anyway. The sponge is definitely last though as it's in the compartment next to the filter, and that appears to be the muckiest water.

The first compartment is obviously designed to take two cartridges as it has moulded slots to take them.

There is such a large empty space in the sponge compartment it seems daft not to put something in there but they must have left it for a reason I suppose.

I saw some ceramic noodles? in the range today so I would be quite happy to alter things around a bit.

The cycle isn't doing much anyway so I don't suppose it would delay it much. Thanks for your help

The only diagram I can find for your filter is in the Aqua Nano instruction manual, which you say is different from yours.
That shows the filter with the pump and heater on the left. At the top right it shows slits labelled 'intake'. Below that there is something labelled 'sponge'. The diagram has an arrow coming out of the bottom of the sponge and up through a narrow double partition then down into the middle section which contains 'ceramic noodles'. the water then goes under another partition and up past the heater, through the pump and back into the tank.

Is this anything like your filter?

You mentioned that one compartment has slots - the cartridges have to go in that one. Most of the cartridges I've seen are made from a plastic frame holding a sort of stiff filter wool bag which has the carbon or ceramic media inside. The filter wool like bag will trap some of the debris, but unfortunately that will lead to a clogged cartridge.

So, how about putting more sponge in the middle. Then, is there room to slide a layer of sponge in front of the cartridges so that the water flows though it first? Or maybe a layer of filter wool? The filter wool (if you get a roll of pond stuff) is cheap and you can afford to throw it away when it gets clogged. It doesn't make a very good home for the bacteria so you wouldn't throw away many bacteria especially if you changed it every two or three weeks. If you used sponge, you would just need to wash it in old tank water form a water change.
Or a wad of filter wool on top of the cartridges?

Filter wool looks like pillow stuffing, only it doesn't have flame retardant additives (which fish don't like!). Some types come as what looks like a bag of pillow stuffing but the easier to use type comes as a flat sheet rolled up like a swiss roll like this. That last kind can be cut up to just the right shape.

Ceramic media often comes as noodles which would be too bulky for your tank. To be honest, in a tank your size, just sponge would be fine.