I have a tetrafin filter than hangs over the top of my tank. The instructions say that I should change the cartridge 3-4 weeks along with putting a little packet of carbon inside. I change it all every three weeks. Should I be rinsing the little cartridge every week? I read it on a post.

Its better if you just rinse it in old tank water so you dont get rid of all your bio bugs that keep your tank cycled

DONT CHANGE ALL OF IT AT ONCE
but do it one at a time
so if u changed the carbon dont change the biomedia at the same time
and yes just swish it in discarded tank water. It's it really clogged, swish it then smack it up against something.

when you clean it, just be sure your cleanign it in dechlorinated water otehrwise, youll kill all your bio bugs

Ohhh did not know this! Wait..how do I not change the filter without changing the carbon at the same time? I pour the carbon into the cartridge because it is like a huge pocket...It would be very messy to try and transfer the carbon from an old cartridge to a new cartridge. Is this what I should be doing instead of changing them both at once?

Kissy, the carbon loses its effectiveness after ummm I think it is 2-3 weeks (someone step in and correct me if I remember this wrong) so you don't want to transfer the old carbon to a new filter "pocket". Your good bio bugs are in the filter material not the carbon. So rinse the filter pocket in old tank water. When you need new carbon, knock out the old stuff and pour in new carbon. They sell jars of carbon at the pet store or walmart.

okay..so how long should I keep my filter cartridge in? The box says three to four weeks so I change it every three. Is this okay?

you can actually keep the fuzzy stuff as long as you want(or as long as you can get it decently clean washing it in water) the carbon is what needs changing every 3 weeks

Oh thats good news! I will look into buying jars of carbon

carbon is dirt cheap, you just have to be sure you rinse rinse rinse it REALLY well before you put it inot your filter cartrage....

maybe put the amount you want in a little noodle strainer and run it under the tap.....youll know when youve run it in the water enough...jet black water wont be pouring from it anymore!

Wow Smack, you seem to be answering all my little questions! Thank you very much

my filter bags are like yours (i have an old whisper filter) but i just dont use the carbon. My filter has the white fluffy stuff and this plastic foam stuff. The plastic foamy thing keeps all the biobugs and the white fluffy stuff does the mechanical filtration. So really i have no use for the carbon, its messy and I dont like (pauline hanson voice) hehe. I just dont feel the need for chemical filtration.

Could be just because i'm lazy, but my tank dosent smell or anything so its all good

I get a nice fishy smell all the time from my tanks, and im really really uber sensitive to stinky smells, so Im all for carbon!

Kissy, thats what were all here for, to answer your questions!

My tanks have never smelt, or maybe i'm just used to it now I get lots of lovely smells at work (i'm a registered nurse)

My fish tank has never really smelled before, but I've been using carbon the whole time. Well I do have the nornal fish water smell, which I don't think is bad at all. Oh wait I just remembered. When one of my goldfish was dieing it made a horrible smell that stunk up my room for a week. I never figured out WHY that was. Other than that no bad smells

hrmm well kissy it could have been a bacteria, i work in a vascular surgery unit and i work with all sorts of gunky wounds. Different bacteria have different smells, some are horridly offensive! Like psuedomonas it produces a bright/flouro discharge and the smell is so distinctive you can tell what colonises the wound just by sniffing it! So it could possibly be some form of bacteria, or something else, we'll never know now hehe

ewww Well, yah I guess I will never know. I'm just glad that smell is gone!

Sorry to jump in on you post, but I had a quick question. Since ya'll are already on the topic of filters, I hope you don't mind me asking.

The sponge in my filter is getting very dirty. It has thick stringy stuff coming off of it. I heard it was bad to change the sponge, so what do I do? It looks like it is way too dirty to be cleaned. My other filter in the tank is starting to look like this also. They seem to be slowing down.

You can take the sponge out when you're doing your water changes.After you take out tank water,take your sponge and rinse/squeeze in the Old tank water. You'll be surprised at how much muck comes out of that sponge! It's a good idea to NOT rinse both of your filter's sponges out at the same time, that way you're not messing with both Bio Bugs at the same time.I try to only do this on occasion. When you see the water flow slowing down from the filter's would be a good time to do it.

Thanks Devs!

Do I ever need to replace the sponge, or does it last forever as long as you keep cleaning it out?

Hey Ruff,I've been fishkeeping for years,and to be quite honest,I can look at my sponges & know exactly when I need to replace them.Now in actual "time",I have no clue! I'm going to give it a good guess & say every six months(give or take) depending on size of tank/versus the number of goldies etc. Now don't quote me on that,okay? I'm terrible with time factors anymore...All I know is that it's passing me by rather quickly. Anyway,if I'm wrong on this.I'm sure 25 people will give their opinion.

Thanks Devs!

Do I just throw out the old and put a new one in, or is there something I should do with the old before tossing?

Okay so yesterday I rinsed out the little filter pad thing and I got most of the stuff off. When I put it back in all the gross stuff started flowing everywhere! How do I prevent this?

hold a brine shrimp net under the waterfall intill the water is running clear...it will catch all the junk from going in to your water

Will a regular small fish net work? That's all I got.

itll catch the big stuff...brine shrimp net is more fine, so itll catch the finer, smaller particles also