Review on 🐠 Customizable Bonded Filter Pad for Marineland Aquarium Filters - Perfect Fit for Any Setup by Fred Khalifa

I bought this product in place of the similar Top Fin product I was using. About a week later 2 of my guppies died. I checked my ammonia levels and to my dismay the ammonia levels were <7ppm - incredibly toxic. I did a big water change and lowered the level to 1ppm, bought Aqueon Ammo-Lock and SeaChem Stability to detox ammonia and recycle the tank. After using both bottles of the product (about 3 weeks) there was no change. The Stability is said to hold up to 400 gallons and I have a 20 gallon tank. I bought Seachem Prime and another bottle of Stability along with the Topfin filter media I used previously. After 3 days my pool was completely free of nitrites and ammonia. The only factor that has changed is the filter I used. This filter does not seem to be suitable for organic cultures. This filter material killed 2 of my guppies and completely disrupted my nitrogen cycle. I'm really not sure how the filter could do that, but there's no other reasonable explanation. Also, I had this filter media in my aquarium for 2 weeks prior to the change and it was practically flawless. Filter media with upper ribs turn almost completely brown after 2 weeks. This product does not appear to be able to filter mechanically or support your nitrogen cycle. Unless you have a dedicated environment for your nitrifying bacteria and rely on your pads as the surface of your tank's nitrogen cycle, please use extreme caution when using this product. There's a chance I'm wrong, of course, and that was for some reason, but at first glance I don't think that's the case. As I said, 3 days after switching to the top fin all my problems were gone. The same blue and white filter material. I called Marineland to share my concerns with them and the person on the phone told me they would raise the issue at their next meeting. I didn't get a positive impression of this promise haha. I would suggest Top Fin filter media cut to desired size instead, having experience with that as I would like. Good luck fishermen!