Help! - I'm A Bit Concerned...

[stuhyde]

I have had a tropical tank now for about 6 months (1st month no fish, added ammonia blah blah), and although the fish are perfectly fine, Ive not done a water change for about 5-6 weeks

Just tested the water (tap water is ph7 - bang on)

ammonia 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
ph 8.2

(i think the plants are utilising the nitrites, hence i dont need to change water AS OFTEN)

Im guessing the PH has increased because of the no water changes, but Ive not done ANYTHING with my filter except rinse it once in tank water. Not changed any media, but the filter bar has about 10 holes and only 3 are spitting out water now despite cleaning it all out about 2 months ago.

Im guessing something should be changed in the filter now, and I need to do at least monthly 50% changes....

Your thoughts please, and thanks



Oh, the filter is a tetratec ex700 on a 120litre tank.

 

[*Fishkies*]

So what exactly are you concerned about?

I would consider cleaning the filter bar, it will help your filter run more effeciently!

 

[stuhyde]

Concerned about not changed ANY media in the filter since day 1.

 

[Darkstar]

If the spray bar is clogged then unclog it. If the flow rate is still no better after that, then yes clean the crap off the media inside the filter...if the flow rate is fine after cleaning the spray bar then you have no need to touch the filter. I clean my filters once a year at most.

I would change some water in your tank though...regardless of what your stats say.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

I'm assuming you're confusing nitrIte with nitrAte (The nitrogen cycle goes ammonia->nitrIte->nitrAte), so it is possible for the plants to be assimilating the nitrates. How many plants do you have? And what is your current stocking.

Nitrate tests go bad faster than the others, and need to be done in a special manner. Did you follow the instructions properly? And what type of test are you doing(stick, liquid, etc)?

If you were confusing nitrites with nitrates, you may just be doing the wrong test.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Water changes:
No matter what your test kits say I would still do a 10% water change once a week or a slightly larger change every 2 weeks. There are more things in the water then what can be picked up by a couple of test kits and doing that partial water change make sure that everything is kept fresh (buffering elements dont "run out", and you dont get big build ups of residues in the water).

Filter cleaning:
I would recommend that every 1-2 months when you do a water change you take your filter apart and give them a rinse out in a bucket of syphoned off TANK water (never use tap water to clean parts of the filter). No matter how clean the tank the filter will get a build up of gunk in it and if you dont remove this every so often it reduces the effectiveness of the filter. You dont have to have it sparkling clean but you will be suprised at the ammount of dirt just a quick rinse will remove.

You dont mention what kind of filter you have. In general you dont want to change anything in your filter as this is where the good bacteria live and if you remove filter media you remove your biological filtration. If you have a canister filter and use filter wool in there anywhere you might want to replace this when you have the filter open but not if this is all you have in there.

Pads, bio rings, pre-filters, should never be changed. Things like activated carbon, phosban etc should be changed according to the instrucitons.


Unless the tank has a LOT of plants in or very low bio load I would expect to see at least some nitrates in there so I would double check your test kits.

 

[stuhyde]

You dont mention what kind of filter you have.

Thanks for the replies people, much appreciated!