Filter pad maintence?

boxfish

New Member
How often do you change/rinse your filter pad or floss in your 130d media rack? I have a 6 month old tank with only a small clown and a full grown thinline hermit crab 3-4" not including shell no corals I use a bonded filter pad with about 1" of floss under, empty skimmer every 5 days. i change it every 3 days is this normal?

Total amount fed each day.
4 shrimp pellets
10-12 granuals of hirarki marine S
quick dip of frozen food once per day. One cube lasts 7-10 days.

I have a vacation coming up and i want to make sure that my maintence schedule is right for my tank sitter. I'm planning on reducing feeding while i'm gone. Any suggestions
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
Generally you want to change or clean mechanical filter media at least once a week. Since your doing it more often, your fine.

You might be overfeeding. Also, frozen food should be thawed first ans rinsed out under tap water before feeding. You can just cut off the amount your going to feed, and rinse that out. I'd also suggest a much wider variety of foods.

As for vacations and tank sitters. If your vacation is less than 2 weeks, have the fish sitter check things about twice a week and feed only then. You want an inexperienced person doing as little as possible, and feeding a lot less then usual.

For my own systems, I make sure the filtration systen is clean, and the ATO container full. I'll go away for up to two weeks and not worry about my system. One thing about my systems is that I don't have anything that requires feeding on a daily basis. If I had something like Anthias damsels, which do require daily feeding or more, then I'd need to get someone in to feed them.
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I concur.

I change my filter floss once a week. Every 3 days is probably better if you are doing that, but I get by with once a week.

I don't have anyone do anything at all to my tank while I'm on vacation for a week or less. Most fish can be by just fine for a week without food despite how they act at feeding time every day. I make sure my ATO is full of water and I let my system run itself for a week.

It feels safer to let my system run itself than have a stranger try to figure out how not to over feed.

I do typically have our house sitter look at the tank and make sure something crazy like all the water leaking out isnt happening, but it never has.
 

SubRosa

Well-Known Member
If you haven't thought of it already, portion out what constitutes a feeding into individual containers with strict instructions to feed one container each time you want the tank fed.
 

boxfish

New Member
Thanks for the input. i will adjust my frozen feeding schedule and amount. When i change water and vacum i'm not finding alot of "trash". I know i need to keep the hermit well fed so he does not chow on my clown. The whole tank was set up after he hitched a ride home with a bag of collected shells. My water paramiters are PH 7.8, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10 and Phos 0. I Do have some hair alage issues but i do think my old bulbs are the main culprit. 3 day black out reduced regrowth after a clean up. Algae started to return in 3 days.

can i have the link on how to share photos.
 

boxfish

New Member
I decided to try a strip of a filter pad in the surface skimmer. The pad is only half the hieght of the strainer grate, so there is little chance of clogging. It has helped get the big stuff before it gets to the floss inside. A little piece of mind when i'm away.
 
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