New Tank - Cloudy Water - No Fish Added Yet - Please Help!

[marknewham]

This all makes a lot of sense and I am currently in the same situation with cloudy water in new tank - the bit i dont get is the 64 litre love fish aquarium I have comes with two filters one green foam and one white pad and these are supposed to be changed every 28 days - wont that remove all the bacteria that I want in the filter?  Sticking new pads in there...
 
Thanks,
 
Mark

 

[daizeUK]

If your filter doesn't contain any other biomedia then yes your bacteria will mostly be living on the sponges.  These don't need to be changed every 28 days, in fact many people advise never changing them at all.  You can give the sponge a gentle squeeze in a bucket of tank water when you do your tank maintenance and this will keep it operating efficiently without losing too many bacteria.
 
Filter wool (floss) is fine mechanical filtration and does need to be changed more frequently, although again you can squeeze it out in old tank water during cleaning to prolong its life.
 
Carbon sponges (black) will last about six weeks before they need to be replaced.
 
Your green sponge, I'm not sure if this is a nitrate sponge as they are often green?  I'm not sure how long those last for but they are usually unnecessary if you keep on top of regular tank maintenance. 

 

[marknewham]

See attached - just confused as to why it says change every month

 

[fluttermoth]

Because they want you to keep spending money on new sponges; simple as that, I'm afraid

 

[marknewham]

Jeez OK so which filter should i be replacing out of the two in there?
 
They describe the white pad as a floss and carbon cartridge and the green pad as an algaway pad.  The algaway pad is housed in something they call a bio-holster which they say not to wash - are they reckoning the bacteria will be housed on this plastic grid mesh thingy???