Filter cartridge

[Juan colin]

Is it normal for my filter cartridge to turn brown with a slime coat  a few days after doing a water change and changing the cartridge?

[Colu]

Yes it depends of how much suspended material in the water column

[gardenman]

It's not unheard of. If you want to extend the life of your filter cartridges you can cut some lengths of quilt batting and wrap them around the cartridges to intercept the dirt before it hits the cartridge. Then swap out the quilt batting instead of the whole cartridge when it gets soiled. You can double or triple the life of the filter cartridges doing that and quilt batting is very inexpensive.

[FrozenFins]

that happend to me, but not that soon. It was about a few months before it turned that brownish color. When was the last time your did filter matnience, you should be doing it with your waterchanges.

[Streetwise]

Replace consumable cartridges with Co-Op or AquaClear foam, or other DIY media.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Streetwise

[Marnol D]

This is normal and if it was soon soon after a water change there was a ton of debris in the water column so the filter filtered them out and bacteria fed on them. You could leave the filter off longer after water changes to let the debris settle but run the risk of hurting your cycle if left off too long.  

If you want to save a dollar or two you can swap those out to sponges and quilt batting. 

I got rid of my replaceable cartridges and used quilt batting (dont use the flame retardant one) and sponges and tossed the batting once it got dirty and would squeeze out the sponges when they got dingy. (you could see the buildup within them)

But this is normal in a tank after its been setup a while , when i was using quilt batting as it creates a good breeding ground for things it did this. 

[Paul]

Do yourself a favor get some coarse sponge and polishing pads you’ll save money and your filter will work better. Just cut the fabric and sponge to fit behind the blue plastic frame and run the filter as usual. Putting a sponge on the intake will reduce the number of times you’ll need to clean the filtration media.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Paul