Filter Media

[Jcartwright]

In my filter i've discovered i have got 2 green coarse sponges and 2 green fine sponges which i belief to be Nitrate removers. I thought if i leave them in i won't be changing the water as often because i won't get a Nitrate spike.Now i have started to get a Nitrite spike (obviously i need Nitrates to get rid of Nirites, Duuurrr! ). So do i need to change the sponges or some of the sponges to get Nitrates back? and how do i go about it without having to cycle the tank again?

Thanks

 

[rdd1952]

That's backwards. Ammonia is transformed into ntrIte and nitrIte is transformed into nitrAte. And sponges aren't substitute for water changes WCs are needed to help keep the impurities in check.

How long has the tank been set up and have you been having nitrite present all along?

 

[Jcartwright]

The tank has been ready for a week. It took about 5 weeks for the Nitrite spike to go and i left it for a week just to make sure and then added the fish. I did a water change yesterday and that's when i noticed the the Nitrite spike.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the nitrite spike is from adding fish. when your cycle was finished did you carry on adding ammonia that week to feed the bacteria?

 

[Yazan]

Try rinsing the sponges in some of the tank water in a bucket.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Try rinsing the sponges in some of the tank water in a bucket.

sorry i don't mean to be rude, i'm confused by this suggestion, why would that be a good idea?

even the most gentle of rinse in tank water will kill off some of the beneficial bacteria, the nitrite spike indicates he doesn't have enough as it is. getting rid of more would only make things worse surely?

 

[Jcartwright]

the nitrite spike is from adding fish. when your cycle was finished did you carry on adding ammonia that week to feed the bacteria?

Yes i did because at first it didn't click that the tank might be cycled because i was getting a low Nitrate reading on the test and someone said it's because i've got these Nitrate removing sponges in so i thought it was alright. I did a water change to try and get rid of some of the algae that is developing and then did a test and the Nitrites were at 1ppm i did a test again this morning and the Nitrites are still 2ppm and the Ammonia is at .25ppm the Nitrates are at 5ppm. Should i change the filter media?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nope the nitrate removing sponges won't be causing a problem, they will also be housing your filter bacteria and removing them will only make things worse.

the tank isn't cycled if you're getting ammonia and nitrite readings, how it's uncycled itself i'm not sure, perhaps too vigorous a cleaning of the sponges or not enough food (ammonia) being put into the tank between teh point you saw it was cycled and when you added fish.

you need to do small daily water changes until it finishes cycling.

i'm sorry i can't see what hascaused this to happen but it's definatley not cycled now so you need to treat it as if you were cycling with fish. i've a pinned topic in the beginners resource centre that explains more if you want to have a read.