I have had an under gravel filter for a while, but have been convinced through reading posts that a filter along the lines of a fluval underwater is superior. I would like to use my new filter, but do not want to risk my fish by disturbing them too much. Please can anyone give me some advice on the change over. Would I need to use the two filters togther for a while?

A: run the two together for 2 weeks to allow the beneficial bacteria in the new fluval to gather,
you Can run the two together if you want all the time but if you don't want to allow at least two weeks of running the two together

I use a Timeline brand CG-1000 electronic air filter in my air handler. Electronic air filters, as opposed to electrostatic ones, filter air using a charged electrical grid plus filter pads.

I found mine a bit of a struggle to replace, but it has kept my coil completely clean now for 3 years. I just vacuum it monthly, and change the pads about every 3 months. I had to replace the filter assembly after 3 years as the thing failed on me.

I would like to hear your...

A: I have seen some that are really good, and some that would make good anchors. Unfortunately, the good ones seem to be the most expensive.

If what you have is working for you, and you are happy with it, then it's a good one!

I have an Aqua One AR980 215lt tank which has an over head wet/dry filtration system filtering 1000lt per hour. It has three bins for filters and I have ceramic noodles, ammonia sponge, carbon sponge, cotton and a plain sponge. The water arrives at the top of the basket and leaves through the bottom. What order do you suggest I put the media in?

A: top to bottom
plain sponge
ceramic pieces
ceramic pieces
ceramic pieces
etc etc

the other stuff ammonia sponge, carbon sponge is just ridiculous. its a waste of money, its a sponge peppered with material. if you want carbon or ammonia use granulated carbon and cranuladed ammonia chips. they last longer and work better than sponges.

all you need is one sponge to mechanically filter then biologically after. i personally dont use...

When I was young, my dad told me that if at first you don’t succeed you should try and try again until you do. In today’s post, I am going to tell you why this adage relates to editing photos by working with filters in Photoshop Elements and in Photoshop.

Step 1

Start by opening an image that you like, set the foreground color to white and the background color to black and choose Filter > Distort > Diffuse Glow. When you do this, the image will take on a rather nasty dark glow. There is pretty much nothing that you can do to this image that is going to make it look good. You can try to remove the graininess and glow and increase the clear amount to 20 but if you do that, you’ve effectively removed the filter effect. The short answer is it looks ghastly and you might be wondering just what you did wrong?

Step 2

Exit the Filter Gallery, switch the foreground and background colors so that black is now the foreground color and white is the background color. Reapply the filter using Filter > Distort > Diffuse Glow. This time the filter looks very different.

The explanation is that Photoshop Elements (and Photoshop) use the foreground and background colors when applying the filter. This time go ahead and crank up the Graininess and adjust the Glow Amount until you get a nice glow on your image. Adjust the Clear value to suit and click Ok. Now you have a very different looking result.

Understanding colors and filters

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