A Question I've Always Wondered About

[quaver]

Okay. Picture this.

You decide to buy a fish tank. You buy it and get it home, fill it with water, aquascape and wait...add some ammonia or a prawn for good measure....and wait..and wait...and wait.
you test and wait for the tank to cycle. Great! your reading are good, and you add fish.

Then you check your filter and it's gunked to hell. You read on the replacement media that the media should be changed every few weeks to maintain a healthy aquarium.

My question is this

By doing what it says on the box, and replacing your filter media, surely you would kill all the bacteria, and thus start the cycling process again?

If it does kill the bacteria,why do they recommend you replace all the media? also, If you wash and replace does that kill of bacteria?

Holly

 

[rocknurworld2006]

Okay. Picture this.

You decide to buy a fish tank. You buy it and get it home, fill it with water, aquascape and wait...add some ammonia or a prawn for good measure....and wait..and wait...and wait.
you test and wait for the tank to cycle. Great! your reading are good, and you add fish.

Then you check your filter and it's gunked to hell. You read on the replacement media that the media should be changed every few weeks to maintain a healthy aquarium.

My question is this

By doing what it says on the box, and replacing your filter media, surely you would kill all the bacteria, and thus start the cycling process again?

If it does kill the bacteria,why do they recommend you replace all the media? also, If you wash and replace does that kill of bacteria?

Holly

yes as u say it would kill the bacteria id u replaced it all or washed it all in tap water.

what u can do is evry month rinse half of it in aquarium water, dont totally squeeze evrything out of it just swirl it about in the bucket to remove excess gunk.
depends on what filter u have some people like to replace half of their media evry 6 months or so . but u should never replace it all or u will kill all bacteria.

 

[minxfishy]

They like to recommend that you change the media, because they make more money!

If your filters are gunked, just give them a quick swish in some tank water youve taken from the tank on a water change. Not too much so you dont lose all the good bacteria.

If and when the media needs replacing, providing you do so a little at a time, then you shouldnt get a mini cycle.

 

[Gazoo]

They like to recommend that you change the media, because they make more money!

For quite a few years I wasted a lot of dough replacing the media as suggested. I haven't trashed any media in years and I also don't use activated carbon unless needed.

 

[Corleone]

Depends on the filter you've got. All the ones I've used have one piece of media it says never to replace, and one or two it says to replace regularly.

 

[JenCliBee]

i suppose it all depends on wot filter u have external 1's have various compartments with differnt type of media in so replacing the sponge in 1 of the compartments wouldnt make much diffenence. as said above companies arnt intested in ur fish so u losing all ur bacteria makes no difference 2 them wotsover hence y they make alot of money telling ppl that arnt that experienced 2 listen 2 replace media. anyhoos just as above says wash in tank water and put it back saves money and keeps ya bacteria so win win situation


jen

 

[waterdrop]

In the hardware section here on TFF you'll sometimes see members say that their sponges and ceramic media have held up for years and years without a change, just a gentle swish or cleanout in tank water.

One of the things we were talking about trying to get better at over in the new to the hobby section is to try and advise newcomers to take a little time to study how filters work and to have a little more information before they pick out their filter, since it is so central to tank operation. It rarely happens but would be ideal to know filters as well as possible prior to buying one and starting the fishless cycling process. Instead we usually don't get new members until they've already bought an all-in-one kit, perhaps with a filter that has less-than-ideal flexibility for media choice.

That's how they do it of course. They sell you a filter that needs "frames" or some similar sort of media holding device that makes it difficult for you to picture using anything other than their device. This would be sort of like them selling you special teacups that only work with pre-packaged tea chambers and them telling you there's no such thing as a choice in tea leaves.

This is why the large external cannisters are so popular with experienced hobbyists here on TFF I think. Its because they often have open trays that accept a wide variety of filter media of your own choosing. Then when its time to rinse that media, the tray often has a handle allowing you to just lift it out and dip it in a bucket of tank water - very simple procedure. Also the volume of biomedia is very much larger relatively than a typical internal or HOB unit. There are, however, HOB units that have a pretty open design for media space and are good too.

But anyway, you are so so right! Ignore that media replacement recommendation and ask on TFF to understand all the best details of filter maintenance and function!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[ALEXF]

Well i think this has been pretty well covered... i actually started keeping fish in january, and in april i joined this forum. i havent changed the media since just a gentle cleaning and my tank has been fine (despite the ich) but yea all you need to do is a gentle cleaning.

 

[tangokitty]

I have bio media that I never change, but I do change the filter floss about every two months.