Recently I bought a big jar of pen-plax activated carbon and the white stuff that looks like pillow stuffing (its for fish but I can't remember its name) to make my own filters.... I have 2 powerfilters and one power filter with a biowheel.

Hmmm. My home-made filters are just too bulky that water does not circulate good enough in the chamber where the gunk is supposed to collect on the filter insert....

On my bio wheel filter, because of reduced water flow because of the filter insert, the biowheel doesn't even turn anymore.... at all! So, I put rubberbands on the filter to help "flatten it out a little." but the biowheel still doesn't turn.....

I am using a "form" for this filter insert. The store-bought brand came with a form (blue fuzz to catch gunk and a black grid that holds in carbon.. I ripped the old blue fuzz off and replaced it with the new white stuff I bought and also put in new carbon...)

What am I doing wrong? is there any better way to make these filters? Also, that white stuff is soooo hard to work with! in some areas it ends up looking to thin or too fat.... I try to stretch it out evenly...but you know how it goes.

And its not jsut happening on the biowheel filter... my small ten gallon hospital tank has troubles with waterflow too... Also, on BOTH of these filters , since the flow is reduced, the gunk only seems to be collecting on the bottom of the filter inserts I make.

On my 30 gal. aquarium, I just rinsed off the old blue fuzz until it looked clean and put in new carbon.... I didn't use the pillow stuffing type stuff.... is this okay?

I know good bacteria likes to grow on these filters, so how often should I change them in a goldfish tank? my cousing (another goldfish owner) thinks I am changing them too often. I change every two weeks.

any help will be appreciated.

alright, i think i see your problem here. you need to try and get sheets of blue/white ac filter floss. it can be used for aquarium or ac filters and is really easy to work with. all you do is tear it open (its two ply), silicone it to the form, let dry for 24 hours, cut it at the edges of the form and viola! optimal waterflow with suspended particles being caught. this should allow for the bio-wheel to start spinning again. that is, if all the other passage ways (filter intake screen, impellar assembly) are free of clutter or built-up gunk.

theres a tip of the month about making these homemade filter cartridges, heres a link: cheap filter cartridges keep in mind, you dont have to use the carbon impregnated kind of filter floss in the article. you can use the ac filter sheets (ace, home depot,lowes) that i was reffering to if you wanted. its really spongy, blue on one side and white on the other. it two ply so you can get twice the use out of whatever you buy.

hope this helps!

I did some rearranging of my tank yesterday and found that my penguin and my whisper HOB filters are the very same filter. The filter pads fit both.

How often are you changing our your filter pads? I hardly ever change mine, but instead rinse them thoroughly in discarded tank water. I only put in a new pad when rinsing doesn't get them unstopped.