Ammonia Remover/zeolite!

[Forestpisces]

Firstly i would like to say that the information about zeolite "dumping ammonia back in the water" was given to me by a member of the forum after i asked why my ammonia was off the chart and my water changes were not helping in the least.

But as food for thought i would like to add that since replacing the zeolite with regular filter foam my ammonia is now completely managable and had more than halfed within 2 days.

My experience of zeolite has been a bad one as i assume it became saturated and was not absorbing ammonia, the cartridges come with the Stingray filter series and i beleive that people should be informed and warned against the companys intention for the filter to be run on zeolite alone and no other filter media as (from experience) if the consumer does not know this then they could end up losing alot of fish and having very odd and fluctuating (yet always at least 5ppm) ammonia test results.

Zeolite as an emergency buffer i consider to be acceptable, but not as a sole filter media.

 

[Dave Spencer]

So your theories beind the spikes are eiter that the stuff slows the spike or that the Zeolite acts as bio-media and causes a spike if removed. The latter would explain the spikes seen upon it's removal, but how about if the stuff is allowed to saturate in a "mature" tank?

In a mature tank there would be a minimal amount of ammonia adsorbed by the Zeolite, due to a robust bacteria colony. Any ammonia adsorbed would just become food for the bacteria colony.

Adding Zeolite to a mature filter full of nitrifying bacteria will have the net effect of adding more filter media in my opinion.

Some people are quick to blame Zeolite for their woes, without giving the whole process enough thought.

Anybody removing Zeolite from a mature/maturing filter will be removing bacteria, with the obvious resultant loss of nitrifying problems. Take any other media out of the filter and the result is the same.

Dave.