emperor 400 questions ?

[manciniat]

i have two 400's on a 75 gal mid way through cycle. i keep reading, no carbon in your filters. the 400's filter pads have carbon in them, correct?

my question is, what pads do everyone else run, that doesnt have carbon? and what do you put in the extra media holder, the one behind the pads?

[gadget228]

I remove the carbon in mine by taking an exacto knife and slitting the filter pad near the top and dumping it out.

Carbon is for removing chemicals from your water and it only lasts for about a month, using it longer than that and it can be harmful for your tank.

The media cartridges are for when you need to treat your water for excesses like ammonia, nitrites, Etc. you add the correct media and once the problem has been corrected you remove the media cartridges.

[manciniat]

ok thank you.

[Northernguy]

If you want an easy type of media to deal with switch it too an aqua clear style media.No cartridges just a sponge to squeeze out and a bag of biomax.You will love it!

[rhonin]

If you want an easy type of media to deal with switch it too an aqua clear style media.No cartridges just a sponge to squeeze out and a bag of biomax.You will love it!

Run these in my 60g african tank and they do a great job!
thumbs2:

[manciniat]

is there different sizes, or are all aquaclear pads the same. will it hurt my cycle to change already. i already have two ( one of them in each of my 400's ) used foam pads that i seeded my tank with.

my idea, cut the carbon out of mine for now, leave in the seed pads for about another month, then remove the seed pads and replace with the aquaclear along with the carbon removed emperor pads. how does that sound?

[annageckos]

That should work fine. One of the great things about AquaClear filters is you can put any media you want in it. I run a 110 on my 55 and a smaller one on my 30.

[Lab_Rat]

It will hurt your cycle to throw out the pads. Place whatever media you want to use behind the pads for a while so they will be well seeded and run that way for about a month. The biowheel should have some bacteria on it too.

[manciniat]

It will hurt your cycle to throw out the pads. Place whatever media you want to use behind the pads for a while so they will be well seeded and run that way for about a month. The biowheel should have some bacteria on it too.


right now i have the pads that come with the 400's and in front of those i have the used pads i got for seeding, on one side. on the other side i have the pad that came with the 400's and the empty media holder behind them.
i want to cut the carbon out of the 400 pads. im not going to remove the seed pads for awhile, im gonna leave them in as long as i can. all though i was told after around a month i would be ok to remove them.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

It will hurt your cycle to throw out the pads. Not on the Emperor 400. The way that filter is designed, the primary biofiltration is the biowheel. The Emperor 400 contains 2 spraybars that deliver water directly to the biowheels before it ever gets to the filter pads. Removing the pads will remove very little bacteria.

There's absolutely not reason to ditch the Emperors in favor of the Aquaclears. The Aquaclears are great filters but so are the Emperors. As has been suggested already, simply remove the carbon via a slit at the top of the blue pad. If you want to avoid having to do that, the extra media holders can be used to hold filter floss and you don't even need to put the stock cartridges in at all. If at some point you need chemical filtration, then simply add the cartridges.

[EmmanuelJB]

Although I don't know why you would want to take the carbon out you can just cut the top of the cartridges and empty out the carbon. The extra space is for extra media such as an extra cartridge or biolagical media.

[MChambers]

This weekend, I removed one of my two filter cartridges (the ones that originally had carbon) and replaced with 1" thick filter foam. As to the other cartridge, a few weeks ago I cut out the fabric and carbon and covered it with filter floss. I'm thinking of putting filter foam on both sides.

After the foam/cartridge, and before the biowheels, I still have the media cartridges, filled with ceramic biomedia and Purigen.

[manciniat]

thank you all who have replied.

im not getting rid of my 400's, just wanted to know what everyone else uses for filter pads and media.

as for the carbon, ive read that carbon is not required unless your trying to remove something from the water, and if left in to long can hurt your tank and over all quality of the water.