Fresh-Water Newbie

[fluttermoth]

Yes, change some of the water or you'll be encouraging the wrong kind of bacteria; you want it at about 4ppm

 

[King]

doing a big change now..

 

[King]

im at 3-4ppm now

also i changed my avatar and its showing the new one in the user/edit area, then when i post on here its my old avatar but bigger?!?!?

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm seeing your new one; it can sometimes take a while to start showing up.

 

[King]

hmm.. well alright then lol.

 

[King]

just had someone offer me a dirty filter, is there anyway to keep this and not lose the bacteria? i have that other 55 that i might use sometime. i am curious is there is anyway to save this media?

 

[Miles_hot]

Put the media in you cycling tank - it gets ammonia and circulation. Will cause a premature apparent end to your cycle I would have.thought - when you remove it your "real" filter will have to catch up again.
Alternatively cycle a bucket but you'll have to feed it 5ppm for more frequently so that the bacteria can process the same volume of ammonia in a 24/12 hour period as they would have done for a full size tank.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Why would he remove the media from his filter? I got a mature filter media and it is still in my filter right now. There is no reason to pull it out, at least not for several months.



King,

Grab the filter media and just throw it into your filter in any cycling tank. It will complete the cycle in very short order - in fact if he had let's say 20 fish in his tank, then your cycling tank would be "instantly" cycled for 20 fish (smaller ones). I wouldn't suggest adding that many at first, but you could easily go with 50% of his stocking level with no worry of even a mini-cycle. Leave that media in the filter for months, then you can start to pull it out piece by piece slowly, with no concerns. Obviously, you will still need to test, just to be sure, but there should be no issues.

What's the latest on your other tank?

 

[This Old Spouse]

I'm with eagles ... why remove it? I've got really old media in some of my filters. In fact, when I break down a tank, I usually stick the filter media from that tank in with some other and just let it sit there. Honestly, I do that so that if I have to set up another tank I won't have to go through the hassle of cycling a tank from scratch.

 

[Miles_hot]

i was running on the thought that using the other filter "as is" was not an option, God knows why! lol

 

[King]

well unfortunately i just tested ammo level in new tank and its back up to 8 again i did a massive water change yesterday and got it down to 4 but i guess i had put just way too much ammonia the first time. i have not added anything to the water since. was is 88.5*, aerated, and looks semi cloudy. i guess another water change is in order. any other advice? also i emailed the lady about that media and told her to call me. she just wants a clean filter in exchange but im trying to see what kind/size of filter she uses.

 

[This Old Spouse]

The lady with the mature media is nearby?

Yep, another water change. How's the other tank doing?

 

[King]

i posted on local craigslist and she emailed me. i wrote her back today but havent heard from her. the other tank is fine, now this 29gal got down to .5ppm ammo so i threw some food in there to break down and check it again tmrw. if its still low i will have to add some ammonia.

this one is going to be cool once it gets set up. thinking about swapping all the small stuff out of the 55 and making it a "semi-aggressive" tank. i really like the "lobsters" and would like to have a couple but gotta have fish big enough that they wont devour them. contemplating doing half a dozen different angels and some pictus catfish, then leave the big pleco in there. they all get decent size and i think would work out pretty good. im still in the "planning" phase for all of this stuff. researching fish and deciding what to do with all of them. i even thought about setting up a 20gal for the 2 big goldfish to chill in.

55gal is doing great

 

[King]

hey i just plugged up 2 power filters back to back, they have the tube that runs down into the water and both of them are humming but they are not drawing water or doing anything. anyone know why? do they have to be "primed" somehow or something

as of right now the only thing i have running is like a 10gal whisper and i know its not cycling enough water. both of these power filters should work but they havent been used in a couple months.

 

[King]

anybody???