Fishless Cycle And Aqueon Water Conditioner

[OldMan47]

It is probably some organic contaminants in the new substrate. I have seen the foam you are talking about while washing raw sand before adding it to the tank. I just kept rinsing the new sand and it went away fairly quickly. The organics will get removed fairly quickly once you start doing water changes. In the meantime, if the foam layer bothers you, you can remove some by laying a paper towel on the water surface and lifting it off before it sinks into the tank water, in a more or less skimming fashion.

 

[MDG]

Hey, OM47, i saw in another thread you said you have a Fluval internal filter that you like. I am thinking of switching to one of those, and seeing if that helps. I think my Whisper Internal is just not working, water is coming out behind the filter media and also "hopping the fence" over the top of it. if i were to do that during the cycle, do you think i could put the sponge from my Whisper into the Fluval and use it? or would i want to use both filters at the same time? or is it better to just stick it out with one filter during the cycle? just a thought.

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like your filter is starting to plug up MGD. Try doing a water change and rinse out the cartridge thoroughly in the old change water. You can get into a situation with one of those filters where the water actually overflows the back of the filter and makes a real mess if you don't keep it clean. Whatever was causing the foaming may have also plugged the media in the filter. Getting the flow going through the cartridge should help you get your cycle on its way again. The flow path with one of those filters is easy. Water goes in the intake tube directly to the impeller which discharges right outside the tube at the bottom of the filter. From the space around the bottom of the inlet tube the water rises up behind the filter cartridge and flows through the cartridge back into the tank. There is a space on both sides of the cartridge to allow proper flow through that cartridge.
The Fluval 4+ that I have works fine. It amounts to a sponge filter in a case with a built in power head but it looks a lot fancier than that. You do not want to change filters in the middle of a cycle if you can avoid it. That would put you back at day one and your cycle has already taken longer than we like to see. Something that hasn't been asked yet is what your pH reading is. If it has moved low, it may be time for that water change anyway, to recover the pH.

 

[MDG]

Thanks! i rinsed out the cartridge in some tank water and it seems to be running better now. I didn't do a water change though. my PH has always been high and i haven't ever seen it fall. I am starting to show some nitrite again, so that is good.

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you are back to making some progress. Nice going giving us enough information to help you.

 

[MDG]

tank is still making progress. my nitrites were at 2.5 last night and ammonia down to 2 ppm. I'll test again tonight.

I've had a lingering question about top-offs due to evaporation. I've usually been hesitant to add any more water until i re-add ammonia. I would think that ammonia would test lower once you re-add water, unless ammonia for some reason miraculously evaporated at a slightly slower rate than water. (or in my case since the tap water has 1ppm of ammonia in it already, heh) so since it's always taken me at least a week to get my ammonia down, i have a much emptier tank than when i started. and in this case it's taken almost 2 weeks, so i am down about a third of the way. maybe that is not a good idea either.

so i guess this is my question: is it better to top-off daily, or only when re-adding ammonia, or does it not matter?

 

[MDG]

here's an update,

my ammonia has only now gotten down to 1 ppm and has been there for about 3 days. my nitrites have almost completely gone away, and now my nitrates are at 2. if i still dont have an ammonia change tomorrow, is it ok to redose it again? or do i really need to wait until it gets to zero?

the good news is that the weird foam is all gone.

 

[waterdrop]

I'm sorry, I'm having a very hard time commenting on this fishless cycle. By my rough calculation this is apparently on Day 84 (12 weeks, 3 months!) (based on the statement that the fishless cycle was 6 weeks old when the thread was started Sept 22) and the filter is not processing ammonia or nitrite down to zero ppm.

I just can not help but be concerned that this filter is somehow insufficient for this tank or that otherwise the filter is somehow defective or the media is wrong or something.

I realize we had the comments about it being a Whisper but I'm wondering if we need to have further questions asked here. Ideas anyone?

~~waterdrop~~