Mature Filter Media Help

[willowstwin]

I get it.. they've adapted to living in filth so a good clean environment would shock them to death Beed reading up on their species, and apparently their life span is 4 years, so they're old fish now. I'll do small water changes starting next week (I can't get in at the weekends) and o that every other day. Unfortunately I can't afford to buy another testing kit for school so as long as I know they're getting some clean water, they've survived this long so I'm sure they'll be ok.

I'm going up this afternoon to see about getting some media. A bit worried about taking the filter apart. I don't know what type it is, but I'm guessing most are the same and pretty self explanatory? If I take a small section of the filter sponge, will this be problematic if it's mot replaced straight away?

Thanks all for the advice

 

[fluttermoth]

Try not to worry about taking the filter apart; most of them are fairly easy. One piece of advice; don't force it! In general, if it doesn't come apart easily, it's because you doing it wrong, lol!

You can take up to a third of a filter's media away under normal circumstances and if you're replacing with a piece of new; you might want to take a bit less than that.

It is best to put some new sponge in straight away so the bacterial colony has space to recover, but if you take only a small part it'll be ok.

 

[Harlequins]

Try not to worry about taking the filter apart; most of them are fairly easy. One piece of advice; don't force it! In general, if it doesn't come apart easily, it's because you doing it wrong, lol!

You can take up to a third of a filter's media away under normal circumstances and if you're replacing with a piece of new; you might want to take a bit less than that.

It is best to put some new sponge in straight away so the bacterial colony has space to recover, but if you take only a small part it'll be ok.

+1

Also take a sandwich bag or tub with you so you can keep the filter media/sponge wet,put a little water from the tank in it,if it starts drying out b4 you get home it may lose some good bacteria

 

[willowstwin]

right, found the pump was a HUGE external thing... easy to take apart - I took only 4 ceramic rings and one of the filter sponges was (luckily) too big, so I trimmed off the excess and put the rest in flush. However, it was really clean in there... no jelly as mentioned previously so I've wedged the piece of filter sponge in with my filter sponge, and just dropped the ceramic rings to the bottom of my tank (I dont have a filter that takes them, so I thought dropping them i would suffice). Here's hoping, even though it's clean (I think he may have cleaned the filter after I grilled him yesterday morning) that he's not killed the bacteria.

I also found a dusty water testing kit where the pump is... didn't check what type it was as I didn't have time (the "sucking" pipe dropped back in the water as I was trying to get the side clip off the filter, and started to siphon off the tank... all over the floor and me - it was like something out of a carry on film! haha) so the tank has now had about a 15% water change. I'm just worried that the filter didn't sound right and the flow seemed to have dropped when I turned it back on. Hope the wee fishies are ok until monday when I can go in and check.

Any advice for getting it going? It's a fluval 105 (or that range, could be a 205, but that style). I pumped the "start" pull tab and it seemed to work, then died down, so did it again and it started pumping but not that great.

 

[willowstwin]

Ok, just looked on "Fluvalblog" on youtube and found the setup guide. Guess I just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best for monday morning... I hope (if the filter stopped working) the fish will be ok The tank is aerated with bubble pipes but still it won't be filtering I'll go up there first thing on monday morning to check on them

 

[This Old Spouse]

I don't think dropping the ceramic rings to the bottom of your tank will do anything. They need to be in the filter. But I'm not entirely sure what the whole setup is with either filter, so hopefully someone with more experience with those filters can help. I'm really hoping the fish at the school will be all right.

 

[Harlequins]

I agree with old spouse,the ceramic rings needs to be in your filter to take any effect,if they wont fit try putting them in a net bag and tying to the bottom of your filter or where the inlet is,may draw through so bacteria into the filter,(although may be a bit late now..

Sounds like the external could have an airlock if the flow wasnt right(you will need to shake the canister to dislodge any airlocks)...hopefully the fishies will be ok

 

[willowstwin]

I went to an lfs today, today him about my bacterial bloom problem (day 4 and no better), so he gave me some stuff to help..... I did a 50% water change, added the stuff, and it's now yellow cloudy water Guess it's another 48 hours and see.

*sigh* was looking at the pretty neon tetras, some golden gouramis and had my fingers nibbled by koi. Patience is key with this hobby, but my water problems are trying

 

[willowstwin]

Right, just reread the instructions... it says 1 - 2hours to clear my water... it's still cloudy, and still yellow... will update later if there's any change

 

[willowstwin]

*update* ok, the stuff I got to "clear" the bloom was disgusting... it left an orange gunk all over my filter, over my ornaments, and generally a mess. I had to do 2 50% water changes, one on sat evening, one on sun morning to help clear it (I rinsed my filter with the first lot of of water I took out of my tank).

I then added the poo (in the "your new fresh water tank" forum) and the tank has never looked cleaner.

On a note regarding the old tank at work... I got to work this morning, expecting the worst (no filtration for 2 and a half days) and the fish were as active as ever. I took the filter apart as per the Fluval video, put it all back together, primed it... nothing it seemed to be leaaking slightly, so while I thought about what to do next, I spotted the water testing kit in the storage section under the tank (I'll talk about the results in a moment) So I decided to put a sealer tape (easy to remove but creates a good seal) around the edge, put the lid back on and primed it.... ITS ALIVE! I gave the fish a feed (I taped a white board to the access door to the tank so people could mark when the fish were fed) and they seemed happy

So, after 2 and a half days of no filtration, I was expecting to have to perform a massive water change... but I didnt

pH - 7.6
ammonia - 0
nitrites - 0
nitrates - 80ppm

I'm shocked!! I double checked with some of our own chemical tests (I work in a lab so I have the means to test for all sorts of chemical) and again, negative for ammonia, negative for nitrites and positive for nitrates.

Is this normal or even possible?

 

[waterdrop]

Interesting thread. An unkempt tank can mean different things. Sometimes the situation is truly bad whereas other times there is just a lot of different types of algae making the tank look very bad but the filtration and water chemistry are actually doing ok.

I always really enjoy these stories when TFFers come upon old school or work tanks and begin to do something about it.

One of the main things to worry about with old and neglected tanks is a condition we often call old tank syndrome. While a mature tank has hundreds if not thousands of types of organic and inorganic substances in the water, it is often most critically the mineral content effect (the hardness) that is of concern in old tank syndrome. Fish need slow changes in hardness when there is any change attempted at all.

So what could be done to help this school tank? The trick used to ensure the fish stay safe while the tank is slowly cleaned up is to keep the water changes (at least for the first weeks or months) very small (down in the 15% or so range I'd venture.) The small water changes will keep the fish from accidently experiencing too quick a change in hardness and yet the positive effects of water changes will be happening. In a way I could see this making things easier for someone. A small burst of help, an hour maybe, might see a small bit of algae cleaned off some part of the interior and a small 10 or 15% water change (with the filter not even needing to be turned off since it's an external and probably has a low intake (although I suppose I shouldn't promote putting arms in the tank with electricity available!))

At any rate, if some gravel-clean-small-water-changes and gentle filter changes take place over a period of weeks, the school tank will no doubt begin to be a place of beauty again! School tanks are a wonderful place for kids to begin to get a glimpse of things like the Nitrogen Cycle!

~~waterdrop~~