Bottom posted.
Sean wrote:
"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

I never use activated carbon (it has it's uses for temporary things like
possibly cleaning the medication out of the tank's water after a medical
treatment etc.), nor do a lot of others here in this newsgroup. Good luck
and later!