WARNING Using Marineland HOB with medications

Sir Chris · Jan 18, 2019

All I use is the penguin.

I use bonded fiber and wrap it around the gram skeleton and use media bags for the carbon.

I would recommend removing the bio wheel that skims the surface as it could trap medication.

Marine pure balls after the filter. Above it is phosguard I re use the bags and glue with coral glue.

I keep my QT going fulltime

Saveafish · Jan 18, 2019

I think I know why there is such confusion on this.
We think of Polypads as being white pre-cut and order them as for the reason of removal. With the blue pads I think we see it as well, untreated poly-pads.
Thinking its a color to memory thing.

Ron83 · Jan 18, 2019

I have always used these but only for the biowheel. I have a marineland running on an established tank. the biowheel is invaluable at times.

vetteguy53081 · Jan 18, 2019

The carbon itself breaks down all meds and compounds and the filament as indicated remove Phos and even iron

DBLA · Jan 19, 2019

Lord Chris said:
All I use is the penguin.

I use bonded fiber and wrap it around the gram skeleton and use media bags for the carbon.

I would recommend removing the bio wheel that skims the surface as it could trap medication.

Marine pure balls after the filter. Above it is phosguard I re use the bags and glue with coral glue.

I keep my QT going fulltime

I like the coral glue idea to re-use the bags!

Ashley Kekua · Jan 20, 2019

what best to use in lieu of this recent observation?????

4FordFamily · Jan 20, 2019

Ashley Kekua said:
what best to use in lieu of this recent observation?????

IMO just remove the cartridge and add some other form of sponge filter media that’s not poly. That’s what I typically do.

lactose · Jan 23, 2019

Would this apply to the white filter pad in the aqueon HOB do you think?

https://www.petsmart.com/fish/filte...acement-aquarium-filter-cartridges-17012.html

I use those on my QT tanks with the carbon removed.

Humblefish · Jan 23, 2019

lactose said:
Would this apply to the white filter pad in the aqueon HOB do you think?

https://www.petsmart.com/fish/filte...acement-aquarium-filter-cartridges-17012.html

I use those on my QT tanks with the carbon removed.

Looks like that has carbon in it.

lactose · Jan 23, 2019

Humblefish said:
Looks like that has carbon in it.

Thx, I've been cutting them open to remove the carbon already but am now wondering if the white pad can be removing anything.

ckalupa · Jan 24, 2019

I use these HOB’s but moreso for the bio wheels. I substitute those refillable plastic sleeves (not sure they are still available?) and cut fiber as needed and also load in high quality carbon or other things when needed. I also break up one of those Brightwell 1” thick blocks and drop a section into the rear of the unit so the water cascades through that but never use their OEM pad setups unless I am intending to clear the tank of everything.

puffy127 · Jan 24, 2019

Just curious, how did all your previous fish make it through QT if this was absorbing medication? Or is this something new that you started doing and this was the first batch?

KJoFan · Jan 24, 2019

I too use these filters for my QT, but when I medicate I always just pull the whole filter pad and deal with the detritus. Guess my laziness paid off in this case. I wasn't about to cut the pads and pull the carbon out, too much work.

TheRealDmorty217 · Jan 24, 2019

I use these for QT but never have used the pad that comes with them. I take the wheel out of my sump and add some siporax to the filter. The filter is only run for a few weeks so I don’t worry about particles in the tank. Left over food get siphoned out once a day.

Gmj4409 · Feb 2, 2019

I am still somewhat confused on this thread. I now understand Marineland HOBs can have pads designed to remove stuff including our QT meds. They shouldn’t be used in our medicated QT environments. The same is true for the brand Poly Filter which is specifically designed as a remove all the bad stuff pad.

What about the plain pads (with no carbon) from other manufacturers?
What about the big rolls of blue/white fiber designed to be cut to fit?
Are we saying don’t use any pad regardless of manufacturer?

I have 3 QTs going right now with 3 different HOBs (no Marineland). I’ve monitored copper via Hanna and noted a very small copper creep 3 or point). Thanks!

Brew12 · Feb 2, 2019

Gmj4409 said:
I am still somewhat confused on this thread. I now understand Marineland HOBs can have pads designed to remove stuff including our QT meds. They shouldn’t be used in our medicated QT environments. The same is true for the brand Poly Filter which is specifically designed as a remove all the bad stuff pad.

What about the plain pads (with no carbon) from other manufacturers?
What about the big rolls of blue/white fiber designed to be cut to fit?
Are we saying don’t use any pad regardless of manufacturer?

I have 3 QTs going right now with 3 different HOBs (no Marineland). I’ve monitored copper via Hanna and noted a very small copper creep 3 or point). Thanks!

This is specifically a problem with the Marineland poly fiber filter pads with the carbon in them. I think we assumed it was only the carbon that would remove meds and that the pad itself was just plan filter material. It was a surprise to find out that it was made from the same absorbent material as a Polyfilter.

Gmj4409 · Feb 2, 2019

Brew12 said:
This is specifically a problem with the Marineland poly fiber filter pads with the carbon in them. I think we assumed it was only the carbon that would remove meds and that the pad itself was just plan filter material. It was a surprise to find out that it was made from the same absorbent material as a Polyfilter.

Brew - thanks for the clarification! That makes sense.

Salt1823 · Jun 8, 2019

This explains so much... geez how many fish have died because they didn't actually get their medicine.. now I understand how stuff slipped thru quarantine. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you do!