Bought A 2Nd Hand Biorb

[-FighterFishh]

You know the Biorb feng shiu [spelling?] pebbles? I just put in the plant by the sides and then put down a couple of pebbles to hold it down, then it just roots by itself, but I keep the pebbles there anyway!

 

[nessar]

Right, have set it all up, decided to keep the original filter, so have used ceramic stuff and beach pebbles. Got a couple of plants too. It looks lovely!

I was going to fishless cycle it but my molly is being a terror again (she bullies fish till they stop eating and then get ill and die, has killed 3-5 so far) so I have squeezed out a filter sponge from my other tank and left it in there, in the hopes that that will be enough bacteria to cope with 1 molly. I'm going to test it regularly, if I see any ammonia I'll just pop her back in the main tank and then fishless cycle it.

 

[mattbleasby]

Great to hear you have it setup Get some pictures up? Would love too see it : Just have a quick read on fish in cycling water changes are your secret lol

 

[ATK!!!]

Sounds great, sadly another big problem with Biorbs is that when you do clean the filter sponge, you have to take off all the rocks, plants and ornaments that cover the tube, my Biube is so heavily decorated with plants and stuff it takes about half an hour just to get to the bubble tube

Pics please!

 

[nessar]

Will have to get some pictures in the next few days because I just tore my tank apart.... I thought the bacteria on the sponge would ahve been enough for just a molly, but after 24 hours ammonia was up to 8ppm! so I just spent the last hour and a half trying to catch it, it was a nightmare!! In the end I had to take everything out the tank, including plants. The curved sides make it so hard to catch fish and its not helped by the distortion so you can hardly see them most of the time!

I never realised the ammmonia would build up so quick, people that do fish-in cycles could never do enough water changes to get it from 8ppm to 0 in a day. Those poor fish. Anyway I certainly didnt want to do all those water changes so molly is back in the main tank and I popped sme extra ammonia in the biorb, will have to fishless cycle now. I'll be able to see how much the filter can handle too, will be a good experiment.

 

[3l3ctric]

I never realised the ammmonia would build up so quick, people that do fish-in cycles could never do enough water changes to get it from 8ppm to 0 in a day. Those poor fish. Anyway I certainly didnt want to do all those water changes so molly is back in the main tank and I popped sme extra ammonia in the biorb, will have to fishless cycle now. I'll be able to see how much the filter can handle too, will be a good experiment.

I'm really sorry that you're having problems with your tank I hope your fishless cycle goes smoothly and quickly. I just wanted to add though, that I had very little choice but to do a fish-in cycle for my latest tank but I never had ammonia above .50ppm and it only got that high once. In general, I would get up in the morning, it would be .25ppm at most, I would do a large water change (~60%) and then a smaller one (~20%) right before bed. Each time, it measured 0ppm shortly after the change. My tank is 7.9 gallons, or 30l. I had a couple plants and a tiny bit of old media from a different filter, but I can't even imagine having ammonia at 8ppm, even without those. And I had 5 kuhli (or kuhli-type) loaches and an apple snail. I don't know a lot about biorbs, and I would definitely recommend a fishless cycle if possible (the less stress on the fish, the better - also, water changes get tiring fast), but I wouldn't assume that most people get 8ppm ammonia in a fish-in cycle and are necessarily putting their fish through hell.