Fluval Canister Filters

[wildechild_01]

I am currently cycling a new Fluval 205 Filter (fish in, it was unavoidable ) i was borwsing through the book that came with filter system and see that they have several products you can put into the canisters, one of them is an ammonia remover, obviously i dont expect to eliminate water changes but i am wondering if anyone knows anything about the product and how effective it may or may not be. any insight would be awesome.

 

[drobbyb]

Ammonia removers are counter productive. They remove ammonia which is food for your bacteria. If there is no food, the bacteria die.

 

[llamalord305]

I think they are called zeolites. I agree with drobby, it will only make your cycle harder.

 

[Bluetooth]

the zeolite and carbon zeolite products are mainly for ammonia spikes ie dead fish, accidental overfeeding etc, as mentioned above you should NOT use these products in the long term as your cycle will never establish and your fish will be permanently damaged by the ammonia once the zeolite dies/you remove it.

Dont bother with it its a waste of cash inless in the above situations

 

[england]

In all of my filter's i only use sponge / cyramic hexs / bio pond filter stones.....

It's worked perfect for 12yrs + and i have seemed to manage fine a breed a fair few species

 

[wildechild_01]

thanks for all the info, i will definitely steer clear... on with the watter changes... huzzah

 

[three-fingers]

Isn't there a bit of debate about this? I mean, the ammonia doesnt dissapear, it just goes into the zeolite, which has a nice high surface area for bacteria to grow on, and the bacteria can also get to the ammonia in the zeolite.

Though it would be very hard to monitor, with the right stocking of fish and enough zeolite, I'm beginning to think zeolite would be great for new tanks.

Some calculations would need to be done to find out how much ammonia a given brand of zeolite could absorb though, and this would need to be balanced against the number of fish.

 

[drobbyb]

Isn't there a bit of debate about this? I mean, the ammonia doesnt dissapear, it just goes into the zeolite, which has a nice high surface area for bacteria to grow on, and the bacteria can also get to the ammonia in the zeolite.

Though it would be very hard to monitor, with the right stocking of fish and enough zeolite, I'm beginning to think zeolite would be great for new tanks.

Some calculations would need to be done to find out how much ammonia a given brand of zeolite could absorb though, and this would need to be balanced against the number of fish.

That could work in theory, but as you mentioned, it would be very hard to get the balance correct. There are just too many factors.

 

[raptorrex]

Isn't there a bit of debate about this? I mean, the ammonia doesnt dissapear, it just goes into the zeolite, which has a nice high surface area for bacteria to grow on, and the bacteria can also get to the ammonia in the zeolite.

Though it would be very hard to monitor, with the right stocking of fish and enough zeolite, I'm beginning to think zeolite would be great for new tanks.

Some calculations would need to be done to find out how much ammonia a given brand of zeolite could absorb though, and this would need to be balanced against the number of fish.

That could work in theory, but as you mentioned, it would be very hard to get the balance correct. There are just too many factors.

agreed