I Think My Filter Has Un-cycled!

[Macko1968]

I did a 30% water change last night & when I tested my stats this evening I'm showing 0.25ppm of amonia .

All I can think is that I took a sponge from the filter to help cycle a friends tank & that has caused me to dip below my reqd. bacteria level. I've taken some sponge from a long-time cycled Eheim canister & added it to the Juwel filter to try & recover the situation. I assume I now need to monitor my levels & keep doing partial changes untill things settle?

 

[shelaghfishface]

I did a 30% water change last night & when I tested my stats this evening I'm showing 0.25ppm of amonia .

All I can think is that I took a sponge from the filter to help cycle a friends tank & that has caused me to dip below my reqd. bacteria level. I've taken some sponge from a long-time cycled Eheim canister & added it to the Juwel filter to try & recover the situation. I assume I now need to monitor my levels & keep doing partial changes untill things settle?

yes

 

[Bobtastic]

Agreed. I wouldn't imagine that it's too uncommon to see a slight rise in Ammonia and Nitrite due to the removal of a potion of the filter media. I guess you would just just do the same as you would if you added new fish. Check the stats regularly and perform partial water changes where required.

 

[degsod]

Agreed with above.

How much filter material did you remove? You should be able to remove up to a third of your material before causing any problems. Also was the bacteria originally built up using the fishless cycle?

 

[Macko1968]

Thanks guys.

I did a full fishless cycle & removed 1 sponge from the Juwel filter, leaving 3 sponges, 2 boxs of their ceramic media & a polishing pad.

The only other thing I've changed is switching to Seachem Prime for my conditioner.

 

[wolfwolf]

I believe seachem prime can mess with your ammonia test. You may not have any ammonia at all. If I remember correctly seachem told me to wait 24 hours before using an ammonia test if you use Prime.

 

[Macko1968]

Really? If that turns out to be the case I will have your babies.