Hello ..
Bored with my homemade under gravel filter that worked flawlessly for 5 years even under heavy fish loads and tired of my green aquarium gravel I decided to get a Magnum 350 canister filter for my 20 gallon aquarium with it's two biological wet dry filters. I also added some fine black sand figuring I could vacuum off it's surface and rely on the bio wheel as the main biological filter.
After removing the gravel and undergravel filter and doinf like a 200 % water change .. bad idea .. I was hoping the murky water left behind would supply enough bacteria to get my biological filter started in time to avoid ammonia. No luck.
After 48 hours ammonia started to show up at about .25 - .5 ppm. I have two Burmese Suncats in the tank now both in the tank for about 4 to 5 years at 6 inches long. I don't really want to recycle the tank with them in their I am afraid they won't survive a high ammonia surge.
My solutions so far ..
At 48 hours I took the old green gravel from the tank that was still outside in a pale about two days old but still moist and added it to the canister filter and submerged a large tall beaker of gravel in the aquarium with a lift tube inserted in the middle. A make shift undergravel filter in hopes of innoculating the tank and maybe keeping the ammonia low or lower.
At 72 hours I recorded the same level of ammonia and did a 4 gallon water change but the levels have not dropped much hovering around .25 maybe a tad lighter after changing out water.
The dilema .. How to cycle without getting huge amounts of ammonia that may weaken or kill the two fish. Is there a safe level of ammonia to cycle the tank ? High enough to cycle but not concentrated enough to injure the fish ? So far the fish look OK.
Has anyone used the Magnum bio wheel ? Does it work ?
Anything new on the market that may help ?
Thanks for any ideas.
Cheers ...
Bored with my homemade under gravel filter that worked flawlessly for 5 years even under heavy fish loads and tired of my green aquarium gravel I decided to get a Magnum 350 canister filter for my 20 gallon aquarium with it's two biological wet dry filters. I also added some fine black sand figuring I could vacuum off it's surface and rely on the bio wheel as the main biological filter.
After removing the gravel and undergravel filter and doinf like a 200 % water change .. bad idea .. I was hoping the murky water left behind would supply enough bacteria to get my biological filter started in time to avoid ammonia. No luck.
After 48 hours ammonia started to show up at about .25 - .5 ppm. I have two Burmese Suncats in the tank now both in the tank for about 4 to 5 years at 6 inches long. I don't really want to recycle the tank with them in their I am afraid they won't survive a high ammonia surge.
My solutions so far ..
At 48 hours I took the old green gravel from the tank that was still outside in a pale about two days old but still moist and added it to the canister filter and submerged a large tall beaker of gravel in the aquarium with a lift tube inserted in the middle. A make shift undergravel filter in hopes of innoculating the tank and maybe keeping the ammonia low or lower.
At 72 hours I recorded the same level of ammonia and did a 4 gallon water change but the levels have not dropped much hovering around .25 maybe a tad lighter after changing out water.
The dilema .. How to cycle without getting huge amounts of ammonia that may weaken or kill the two fish. Is there a safe level of ammonia to cycle the tank ? High enough to cycle but not concentrated enough to injure the fish ? So far the fish look OK.
Has anyone used the Magnum bio wheel ? Does it work ?
Anything new on the market that may help ?
Thanks for any ideas.
Cheers ...
