zeolites

[marcusbacus]

I bought some zeolites (ammonia removal rocks) to use in my main tank for a while (and they worked as expected), and now I'm planning to use them in the betta tanks, that are unfiltered and have to have their water changed quite often because of the ammonia as everybody knows. The problem is that I've heard that these zeolites work better when placed inside a filter to take advantage of the water flow, and as the betta tanks are unfiltered, can they work in there without the water flow?

To use in the main tank, I did some mini "pad" with a bit of perlon (the media filter thing), placed a few rocks (very few!) inside the pad and placed it on top of the media cartridge (my filter is a Whisper 20). I just removed it from the big tank and placed as it is in one of the betta tanks, but if it is not going to work, I'll remove it ASAP. One advantadge I see on placing it there is that it might already have some bacteria attached in that perlon...

 

[wuvmybetta]

Well, you would actually have to have the water flowing over the rocks to get any sort of outstanding results. But on a positive note at least you're introducing beneficial bacteria so if you plan on keeping a cycled betta tank,you're heading in the right direction.

 

[marcusbacus]

The problem of trying to cycle the tank just now is that it must have full water changes every week at least until things get stabilized, this doesn't let enough time for the bacteria to attach anywhere. When I was cycling my bigger tank (took just 12 days!) I tried adding some of the Cycle I was using to the betta's tank but it didn't have any effect, as the water change had to be done and washed away all of it I think.

 

[SRC]

I have a 10 gal community tank here at the house, and I have some of those bags of rocks that absorb waste and remove amonia..but mine are called C-100 (got them at Wal-mart). The package says to put them in the filter for better performance..but I have a whisper filter and they are way to fat to stick down in there. So I just put it on the tank floor. across from the filter (where the current comes down) where it still gets a current moving across it, but it's not a whole aweful lot though, and it works great.

Before I couldn't get my ammonia level down past .50 ppm no matter what I did, after I put that pack of rocks in the tank..it has consistantly stayed at 0 (of course that's with bi-weekly water changes of 35-50% though).

I don't see how it would hurt your fish, as it is a water purifier...it might not do anyhting at all...would be the only detraction I'd see.

 

[marcusbacus]

I didn't test the ammonia today a day after adding the zeolites, but there's at least one thing that is different: there's a big bubble nest today in his tank, and as the water change is scheduled for tomorrow, this is very unusual. The closer it is to water changes, the smaller the nests are, or they are inexistant.