"Mellie101" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, in future i will ask people here rather than my LFS. They told me,
when I bought the filter, that I change the foam and charcoal once a
month and and the media every 6 months. So I made an order of the
charcoal and foam to now realise that the foam last for a very long
time. They did tell me that you rinse the media in the tank and put it
back in the filter. Don't worry I was going to research all this
before doing any of it. :-)

I have a fluval 404. Does seem to go through spurts where it kicks
lots of bubbles out but all in all very happy with it.

So, another question, should I rinse one foam sponge one week and then
the other the following week so as not to go through a mini-cycle?
Beginners are very scary, aren't they?

Cheers
Mellie

I don't think rinsing the foam is going to affect your tank's cycle. The
media itself is usually the "bio-life support" of the filtration system.
Which brings me to ask the following question. Do many people here use a
charcoal filter? I don't use one at all and was just wondering.


Sean