CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

I just wanted to know how often to change my carbon and or the sponge in my Aquaclear 500 filter?
The filter is on a 30 gal. tank. I know that's alot of filter for a little tank, but itdoes a wonderful job!

the more filtration the better!!! im glad to hear somebody is doing it right!!! The sponge really never needs to be changed, i would wash it out in a bucket of dirty tank water when you do a water change. I woul change the carbon every month or two (mabee three since this is over filtration). To be safe i would do every two months, because when the carbon becomes exhausted it starts releasing toxins back into the tank.

OR
Throw away the carbon and use two sponges,then you can completely wash one at a time on a rotating schedule and not have to worry about dealing with carbon.

good idea, ill have to try that, (or upgrade to an emp 400!!!!!!!!)

I have three wisper 30's on my 29 gallon, how often should i change the filtler and do i compleaty change the coshy white part and the carbon or do i do somthing else. Also, is this too much filtration and if so is that bad?

in my whisper 30, i remove the whie "cushy" thing and rinse it in used tank water.

You really can't overfilter a tank, especially if there're cichlids in it. The more filtration the better.

That white cushy bag you're talking about, just do like Surferdude said and rinse them off from time to time. But not all at once, try to alternate. They house a lot of benificial bacteria and you need to give them time to recolonize in your filters. That's also what the sponge in front of those carbon bags are there for.