Carbon Bad or Good?

iamntbatman

Be aware that a huge amount of the beneficial bacteria in your tank are housed in the filter. If you completely replace the filter with a brand new one, you can be almost guaranteed to see at least a mini-cycle. Either run both filters together (a month would be a good amount of time) then remove the old one, or move the filter media from the old filter to the new if possible.

andreannestvincent

Even if I also have an under gravel filter in the same tank? I curently have the Elite filter going and the under gravel filter going in the same tank. If I remove the Elite and add the Aqua Clear I would still need to have the Elite and Aqua Clear running with the under gravel filter?

iamntbatman

You could *probably* make the switch right away, then, but why gamble with the lives of your fish?

SinCrisis

i think that you shoudl run the tank with both filters for a bit but i dont think it needs to be a month. Probably 2 weeks is decent. Also squeezing water from ur old filter media into the new filter media might help it a little