Okay, I was reading through a post and it talked about how (for the Eclipse System Six) that the filter had carbon rocks in it. It said to remove the rocks after about one month as they tend to dirty up the system... I cut the top part (the gauze type area) and let as many of these little rocks into the garbage as I could... but there is still about 25% of them left! is that going to pose a problem?

how often should i replace filters? and how long after I take out the carbon should I expect the filter device to keep working?

Try to avoid changing your filter, especially if you just have one. You can swish it around in water you've taken out of the tank to get some of the accumulated crud off, but the surface is where a lot of your good bacteria will grow that keep your tank going smoothly.

The carbon is optional unless you're trying to remove medication from the water after a treatment or have some other reason to need it in there. (In my case, for example, to remove the horrible garlic smell after I fed them a particularly fragrant food. blech.)

Those kinds of filters do two things - mechanically filter solids out of the water that you want to get rid of, and biological filtration by providing a place with a lot of surface area where bacteria that convert the ammonia and nitrite live. You can provide other places for the bacteria to live if you want to be able to just toss those without messing up the tank too much, but that eliminates some of the attractiveness of having everything hidden and compact.

I was considering only putting in a new filter every 6 months while just cleaning off the crud on the filter that accumulates... I think this would be the best way! I'm not sure if keeping the same filter for 6 months is a good thing... could someone help me out here?

Replacing ur filter every 6 months meaning starting all over again from zero every 6 months. Replacing the filter media means u throw away all the beneficial bacteria that's living on the media and u expose your fish to harmful toxins again. Beneficial Bacteria is the most important thing to have in your filter. You never replace a filter media unless it's seriously breaking down, and that would take yeaaaaaaars.

My personal opinion: I don't think carbon is essential and I never use it. It only serves to un-cloud the water and remove medication, but other than that does little else. Moreover, u have to replace it periodically and that's unwanted expense for me. Better use that carbon space for extra biological filter media.

I've always understood that filter cartridges are different than bio-media and should be cleaned/replaced every so often. The bio-media sponge/wheel/other should NOT. Perhaps it depends on the filter type, though?

My Penguins and my Aqua-Tech filters have blue cartridges that I clean/replace every so often, and also those scrubby looking things that - from what I understood - are where the good bacteria grow. Those I only swish once in a while. Never wash and never replace.

If I don't clean my first-line-of-filtration blue cartridges regularly, they become totally ineffective at filtering the water and my bio-wheels stop turning.

Am I doing it wrong?

Lisa

Er...I don't know how a Penguin or Aqua-Tech looks or what they have on the inside, but the main thing is u should not replace any bio-media where the bacteria grows. Any other thing can be cleaned/scrubbed/maintained/replaced as needed.