Assorted Small Questions

[QuotheRaven]

Ok

1:When cleaning a filter pad is it safe to remove it from water for any period of time. How do you clean filter pads effectively.
2: Can you place a heater sideways across the tank and not verticle??
3: Does Melafix help with fin rot?
4: A kribensis pair has had fry eggs the parents are moved to a small tank to hatch the eggs the father is removed due to being unwell in the new tank. After 2-3 weeks could the dad be placed back with the now free swimming fry and the mother or will the mother be aggressive or will the dad eat the fry?

thats all thanks

 

[xJake]

1) You should never have the biological filter media out of the water for more than a few seconds.
2) Yes you can place the heater horizontal. This is actually a better, more efficient way to have your heater as the thermostat in the heater is level with the heating coils and will have the same temperature water around them both.
3) Melafix can help with bacterial finrot, however, for fungal finrot (usually with white puffy fungus around the damaged fin) you should use pimafix or another anti-fungal med.
4) Usually when parents are separated from their fry they no longer recognize the fry as their own, so they probably would eat the fry unless you wait until the fry are bigger than their mouths.

 

[QuotheRaven]

ok bugger on the fin rot I believe it may be fungal fin rot not bacterial....however the Melafix seems to be improving some of my other fish without the fin rot

 

[TammyLiz]

To clean, rinse sponges or floss in old tankwater, such as when you do a water change, do a little squeeze in the bucket of old water before throwing it out, and then immediately return it to the tank. Don't rinse in water that has not been dechlorinated, or in hot water. Never clean and/or replace all of the filter media at once unless you have something seperate for biological filtration. The exact method of which pieces to clean and which pieces to leave alone depend entirely on exactly which type of filter you have an what kind of media you put into it.