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I have an Aquaclear waterfall filter. Lately it's been giving me trouble and I'm concerned about it. I replaced what's needed for the filter for the first time. I replaced the BioMax (Large white pellets that come in a net.) and Carbon (black dusty substance in a bag.). I read at the back of the Biomax box that putting in regular tap water can damage the chemical and I've been doing so since I got the filter almost 4 months ago. At the back of the box it says to use filtered water. So I use the water from inside the tank and pour it inside the filter. The water fills to the top and falls as it's supposed to do but doesn't suck up anymore water. Then I do it numerous times. Then I just get stressed out and put in the tap water. I have to put in the water 4-6 times and it takes about 5 minutes to start sucking in and spilling out water. Then later about 3 or 4 hours later it stops filtering water again then I have to put in more water. Can anyone help me?

Well, I'm not sure if I'm any help, but my filter did the same thing. Once I get it going it works great, but sometimes it's a little testy to get going. The last time I drained the tank I took the filter completely apart and cleaned each piece individually. It was pretty gooey in by the impeller. It did start up easier that time.

Using the tap water in the filter is fine. The activated charcoal is made to get rid of the chlorine for you & that's one of the reasons it is "activated"!

FYI: "activated charcoal" is the "secret" substance used in Brita & Pur water filters to get rid of the chlorine.....

yea it actually removes a bunch of bad stuff from the water like heavy metals and toxins. But it should be replaced regularly (how often depends on how dirty the water is) because once it gets saturated with the bad stuff, it will start to leach it back into the water again.

My understanding is that the white tube pellets should be left in basically forever, as the longer they are in the more good bacteria they will have, therefore becoming more and more effective.

Can you areally leave those in??? I have the black stars for the Rena XP3 can those be left in there forever?

Yes, if they are meant to be for colonizing the bacteria then you should leave them in. Just rinse them out once in a while in the old tank water when you do a water change so they don't get clogged with solid waste gunk. The ceramic rings are very porous so they have a lot of surface area for the bacteria to colonize. I guess the way the black stars are shaped gives them alot of surface area as well. There's no need to through them out or constantly replace them.