New fluval canister filter questions

[Juan colin]

Hello everyone today i decided to buy a fluval 207 canister filter and i had some questions about it.I currently have a hang on back and a sponge filter in my 37 gallon aquarium but my hang on back isn’t working that well anymore.my question was if i could completely take off the hang on back and throw away its media or do  i have to put the filter media in the new canister filter.

[Fish Folk]

28 minutes ago, Juan colin said:

Hello everyone today i decided to buy a fluval 207 canister filter and i had some questions about it.I currently have a hang on back and a sponge filter in my 37 gallon aquarium but my hang on back isn’t working that well anymore.my question was if i could completely take off the hang on back and throw away its media or do  i have to put the filter media in the new canister filter.

We’re not super experienced with canisters, but as long as there’s some media in them, you could just set it up without removing anything currently in the tank immediately. Let the new canister filter run for two weeks, and then take out the HOB.

Bacteria live in substrate as well as filters, so you’d probably not crash if you just went straight from HOB to canister.

What you describe about moving filter media from HOB to canister might work too.

[lefty o]

i  would run the new canister along with the HOB for at least a few days. this will give the new filter a chance to start building its bacteria levels  to do its job.

[Stealth Aquatics]

You could also take some media from the hang on back and throw it in the canister for a while. Then run both filters for a few weeks before you remove the HOB. You don’t want to take out all the bacteria that is in the filter for a sterile filter. 

[CommonCurt]

On 5/29/2021 at 1:11 PM, Juan colin said:

Hello everyone today i decided to buy a fluval 207 canister filter and i had some questions about it.I currently have a hang on back and a sponge filter in my 37 gallon aquarium but my hang on back isn’t working that well anymore.my question was if i could completely take off the hang on back and throw away its media or do  i have to put the filter media in the new canister filter.

Put the media from your hang on back into the canister, or do what @stealth Aquatics suggested.

Do not throw away your hang on back media if that was the only filter you had running.

[Andy's Fish Den]

As others have said, don't stop running the HOB right away, let both run for a few days to a week. A suggestion for you, buy an intake filter sponge and put on the intake of the canister filter. It will catch a lot of stuff before it makes it into the canister media and will save you from cleaning the canister filter media as often.