Noob learns about sponges vs biomedia

[JCinPA4]

Holy smokes! I had read about pot scrubbers in various places, I have seen the videos where guys like Cory from Aquarium Co-op fill filters with only sponges, people using filter floss, etcetera. But I had never put it all together. Today I did. Starting with a Google AI search, then reading some other forums and sources as well as here, I found out bio media is a complete marketing scam (with the exception of K1 media in a fluidized bed). I had already modified my AC20 by adding a 1" thick 20 PPI sponge then the supplied blue sponge, topped with a dual density water polishing pad, but I am now going to ditch the bottom 20 PPI layer and just get a second AquaClear 30 PPI sponge block and use two of them topped by the polishing pad. No other media needed.

Apparently the 30 PPI sponge is about the perfect "biomedia" around. I found this web resource fascinating.
Aquarium Science Filter Media

I have always run a UGF in conjunction with a HOB filter decades ago when I used to keep fish, and now, newly back to it. But I thought I was getting some bioload boost from the ceramic media. I don't need it, with the UGF, but it was nice insurance. Now I see there is even MORE insurance provided by doubling up on the supplied sponge.

A couple other things I learned. The Poret foam sold by Swiss Tropicals and recommended by @TwoTankAmin is indeed the "gold standard". If I was going to make a matten filter or a sump, I'd probably buy some. OTOH the Aquaclear sponges are so cheap for my HOB I'll just get more of theirs. They should last at least 5 years, from what I've read.

A corollary Is that if I was going to build a sump, and was not considering a fluidized bed, I'd probably just fill the entire thing up with Poret Foam, one 20 PPI block followed by as many 30 PPI blocks as will fit, in effect creating a massive Matten filter. Leave room in the last compartment for chemical media and a heater, but using stuff like Seachem Matrix or Fluval BioMax is both unnecessarily expensive and provides substandard biological filtering relative to a sump full of Poret 30 PPI foam. Makes sumps a lot simpler, too.

A couple valuable tips the Google AI found for me was that to cut really snug blocks of foam for HOB filters, soak them in water and freeze them solid. Then cut with a good serrated bread knife. Pretty clever, actually.

The other tips I got from AI for my AquaClear were about cleaning.

First I have plenty of bio filtration in my UGF and the now two 30 PPI foam blocks. No need to worry about the bio capacity in the pre-filter on the intake tube. For that it suggests getting a plastic bag over it inside the tank, then removing it in the bag to avoid gunking up the tank. Then really clean it super thoroughly in hot tap water. It's job is to keep small fish out of the filter and catch chunks of stuff the fish may pick at later. No need to worry about killing the bio colony in that.

For the two 30 PPI blocks in the filter, it recommends a 2-month schedule. Pull the bottom one and clean per normal in the water change water and replace it back in the bottom position in the filter in month 1. The next month pull the bottom filter again and clean it, but now move the top sponge to the bottom and put the cleaned bottom sponge in the top position. Month 3 is like month 1, month 4 is like month 2, etcetera. This keeps the biological capacity as undisturbed as possible. I am not sure why not go with a simple monthly schedule of clean the bottom sponge, move the upper sponge to the bottom and do that each time, frankly. The AI suggestion seems unnecessarily complex, but maybe there is a reason for it.

I figured most people here know about the superiority of sponges over biomedia. I thought that like me, some folks might be shocked at just how much sponges best the biomedia, and the tips might be helpful.

 

[JCinPA4]

I asked the AI about why not rotate the sponges each month, and it changed its recommendation to really never moving the top/bottom sponge position. I thought the reasoning was interesting, and found it compelling. The entire convo is here:

==========

The rotation method you suggested—cleaning the bottom sponge and moving the top sponge down every single month—is actually a very popular strategy among hobbyists. However, keeping the sponges locked in their permanent positions (only moving the bottom one to clean it) is biologically superior for one critical reason: it prevents you from accidentally choking out your most active biological filter colony [1].
Here is the breakdown of why leaving the top sponge alone is the better approach:

The "Feeding Zone" Breakdown​

In any filter basket, bacteria do not establish evenly. The colony grows where the food supply is richest.

1. The Bottom Sponge (The Factory): This sponge receives the raw, dirty water first. Because it gets 100% of the ammonia and nitrite straight from the tank, it hosts your largest, most hyper-active, and fastest-growing bacterial colony. [1]
2. The Top Sponge (The Polisher): Because the bottom sponge already processes the vast majority of the waste, the water reaching the top sponge is mostly clean. The top bacterial colony is much smaller and acts as a safety net. Its primary job shifts away from heavy bio-filtration and focuses almost purely on trapping micro-debris.

The Danger of Shifting the Top Sponge Down Every Month​

If you rotate the top sponge to the bottom position every month, you force that smaller, less-established top colony to suddenly handle 100% of the raw tank waste.
At the exact same time, you have just washed the heavy bottom colony, temporarily weakening it. By forcing a weak colony to the bottom and a washed colony to the top, you create a monthly biological bottleneck where your filter is running at minimum capacity.

Why the "Wash and Return" Method Wins​

By keeping the sponges in their fixed positions:

• The Bottom Stays Strong: The bottom sponge remains the dedicated powerhouse. When you wash it, you shake loose the heavy mud and sludge, but the core colony stays locked into its high-food zone and bounces back rapidly.
• The Top Stays Pristine: The top sponge remains a dedicated, undisturbed polishing barrier. Because it never sees raw debris, it almost never clogs, meaning it rarely needs to be washed at all.

Keeping them fixed gives you a perfectly balanced filter where one sponge handles the heavy biological work and the other guarantees crystal-clear water. [2]

---

Since you have your UGF running alongside this, your tank has an incredible buffer against any biological shifts anyway. Would you like to know how often you should actually wash that top sponge if you decide to keep it permanently in the top position?

[1] https/www.houzz.com
[2] https/maidsbytrade.com

Because your under-gravel filter (UGF) handles the bulk of the biological load and your bottom sponge acts as a heavy-duty shield, the top sponge stays remarkably clean.
You only need to wash that top sponge once every 4 to 6 months.

---

The "Light Rinse" Rule for the Top Sponge​

When the time finally comes to clean that top sponge, you must treat it differently than the bottom one. The bottom sponge gets squeezed and scrubbed aggressively to remove heavy mud, but the top sponge requires a gentle touch to preserve its delicate, polished environment.

• The Bucket Swish: Dip the top sponge into a bucket of discarded aquarium water and give it 2 or 3 gentle squeezes just to loosen any trapped fine particles or micro-biofilm.
• Keep the Structure Intact: Do not wring it out or blast it under a tap. You want it to look visibly cleaner, but it should still retain its aged, matured bacterial structure.

---

Signs the Top Sponge Needs an Early Wash​

While 4 to 6 months is the standard timeline, your eyes and your filter will tell you if it needs attention sooner:

1. The AquaClear "Bypass Indicator": Look closely at the gray plastic media basket inside your AC50. If the water level inside the filter box rises to the point where the basket starts lifting up, or if water is spilling backward over the U-shaped intake tube wall, your top sponge is clogged and restricting flow.
2. Micro-Particle Floating: If you notice a sudden increase in tiny, free-floating particles dancing in your aquarium light, the top sponge has filled up with micro-debris and can no longer polish the water efficiently.

---

The Ultimate Maintenance Calendar​

To put your entire filter routine into one simple, bulletproof schedule:

• Every 2 Weeks: Perform your 25% water change. Leave the AC50 completely alone.
• Every 4 Weeks: Squeeze out the bottom sponge aggressively in the bucket of tank water. Put it right back on the bottom.
• Every 4 to 6 Months: Gently swish the top sponge in tank water during your normal monthly routine.

By treating the two sponges as separate tools—one as a rugged worker and one as a fine polisher—you ensure your water stays crystal clear and your biological cycle remains completely unbreakable.

---

You now have a world-class filtration system and a maintenance schedule to back it up. Do you have any other questions about your filter basket setup, or are you ready to get this dual-sponge powerhouse running?

 

[Rusty_Shackleford28 143]

Holy smokes! I had read about pot scrubbers in various places, I have seen the videos where guys like Cory from Aquarium Co-op fill filters with only sponges, people using filter floss, etcetera. But I had never put it all together. Today I did. Starting with a Google AI search, then reading some other forums and sources as well as here, I found out bio media is a complete marketing scam (with the exception of K1 media in a fluidized bed). I had already modified my AC20 by adding a 1" thick 20 PPI sponge then the supplied blue sponge, topped with a dual density water polishing pad, but I am now going to ditch the bottom 20 PPI layer and just get a second AquaClear 30 PPI sponge block and use two of them topped by the polishing pad. No other media needed.

Apparently the 30 PPI sponge is about the perfect "biomedia" around. I found this web resource fascinating.
Aquarium Science Filter Media

I have always run a UGF in conjunction with a HOB filter decades ago when I used to keep fish, and now, newly back to it. But I thought I was getting some bioload boost from the ceramic media. I don't need it, with the UGF, but it was nice insurance. Now I see there is even MORE insurance provided by doubling up on the supplied sponge.

A couple other things I learned. The Poret foam sold by Swiss Tropicals and recommended by @TwoTankAmin is indeed the "gold standard". If I was going to make a matten filter or a sump, I'd probably buy some. OTOH the Aquaclear sponges are so cheap for my HOB I'll just get more of theirs. They should last at least 5 years, from what I've read.

A corollary Is that if I was going to build a sump, and was not considering a fluidized bed, I'd probably just fill the entire thing up with Poret Foam, one 20 PPI block followed by as many 30 PPI blocks as will fit, in effect creating a massive Matten filter. Leave room in the last compartment for chemical media and a heater, but using stuff like Seachem Matrix or Fluval BioMax is both unnecessarily expensive and provides substandard biological filtering relative to a sump full of Poret 30 PPI foam. Makes sumps a lot simpler, too.

A couple valuable tips the Google AI found for me was that to cut really snug blocks of foam for HOB filters, soak them in water and freeze them solid. Then cut with a good serrated bread knife. Pretty clever, actually.

The other tips I got from AI for my AquaClear were about cleaning.

First I have plenty of bio filtration in my UGF and the now two 30 PPI foam blocks. No need to worry about the bio capacity in the pre-filter on the intake tube. For that it suggests getting a plastic bag over it inside the tank, then removing it in the bag to avoid gunking up the tank. Then really clean it super thoroughly in hot tap water. It's job is to keep small fish out of the filter and catch chunks of stuff the fish may pick at later. No need to worry about killing the bio colony in that.

For the two 30 PPI blocks in the filter, it recommends a 2-month schedule. Pull the bottom one and clean per normal in the water change water and replace it back in the bottom position in the filter in month 1. The next month pull the bottom filter again and clean it, but now move the top sponge to the bottom and put the cleaned bottom sponge in the top position. Month 3 is like month 1, month 4 is like month 2, etcetera. This keeps the biological capacity as undisturbed as possible. I am not sure why not go with a simple monthly schedule of clean the bottom sponge, move the upper sponge to the bottom and do that each time, frankly. The AI suggestion seems unnecessarily complex, but maybe there is a reason for it.

I figured most people here know about the superiority of sponges over biomedia. I thought that like me, some folks might be shocked at just how much sponges best the biomedia, and the tips might be helpful.

I kind of agree with @JCinPA
In this case your UGF is providing the biological component so let your Aqua Clear handle the mechanical filtration component.
Use foam and poly fill to polish the water in the HOB, something you can clean easily and often or replace in the case of poly fill.

 

[TwoTankAmin24]

SPONGES ARE BIOMEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will tell you that the Aquarium Science site is awful, Their info is bad and I would advise one to ignore it.

I would say the same thing about the AI answers.

90% of people in the hobby are using what I call Urban Aquarium myths to guide their actions.

Folks are willing to beleve all the BS and to ignore established science. The fish are who suffers because of this.

Filtration is done by living organisms. Media does not filter, it provides a place for those organisms to liveand to have what they need in the water delivered to them.

If what most believe above were, true the world would not exists. Our job as keepers is to do the best we can ina glasss box to replicate the things that have been working in nature for millions of years.

And the best Poret ppi as a general rule is not the 30 ppi it is the 20 ppi. Clogged media is uselsss and the higher the ppi the faster it will clog. Almost all of my AquaClear filters use Poret 20 ppi.

For the past 20 Years I have been working with the rarer B&W Hypancistrus. I have spent well over $25,000 to acquire rare species. I have had at least 1,200- 1,500 offspring born in my tanks and go out across the country to other keepers. I have been told I have an excellent reputation for offering healthy fish which arrive alive, stay that way for those who keep them properly and my favorite reconntact from such folks that they have got them breeding tells me I am doing things right.

The absolute worst thing o do when cleaning foam is too squeeze it, That is the best way to shorten its useful lifespan. I have thrown out a loc ot the initial AC foams as the started to fall apart. To day I have Poret in filters for 10 years of more and it is still in great shape.

What a filter does beyond providing a home for the needed organisms which make oiut tanks safe is to move the water which contains those things through the media to feed those organisms. But, if one has no filter but substrate and other solid surface out of the liht, the bacteria will colonize these and will do the same job.

I joined this site a long time ago. Back then the owners and mods were pretty awful and I walked away for years. When I returned, I was reading plenty of posts about failed or stalled cycles. The cycling info here was pretty bad. I offered t rewrite it. Site admins could have rejected what I produced. But, it has been up since 2013. And the number of thread about cycling issues has declined drastically.

What I can also say is that in the 1990s what was accepted as the facts regarding what was doing the cyling chores has changed. Dr. Hovanec proved that the conventional wisdom as to what was doing the work was actually not. As the scientific tools got better, so did the knowledge. The actual microoganisms doing the work were identified, Then more of them were discovered. First it was learned that there were ammonia oxidizing Archaea as well as bacteria. Then it was discovered that some strains of Nitrospira (the ones that oxidize nitrite to nitrate) were actually able to oxidize ammonia directly to nitrate.

So, here is a question for the curious among members. The bacteria involved are singled celled lifeforms. They are there in huge numbers to make a tank safe. So, what do you think is the normal lifespan of the millions of individual single cells that are needed to keep a tank safe? What do these cells need to thrive and function as they do? If you want to learn the answer do not use Google Search ir its AI, Instead go to Google Scholar which only looks at the science and not all the other BS out there.

How many scientific papers has the guys who runs Aquarium Science had published over the years in peer reviewed journals? I have a few hundred such papers bookmarked. Here is an example of my file on the Archaea which includes comparisons of them and the bacteria.

 

[10 Tanks]

Wow! This may be the most voluminous post in the history of forum posting. I would just say that if you remove and replace most of the tank water every few days, whatever type of filtration you use will be more than sufficient. Truthfully, there's no mystery to keeping aquarium fish healthy. You just have to be willing to remove and replace a lot of their tank water and do it frequently.

10

 

[JCinPA4]

I kind of agree with @JCinPA
In this case your UGF is providing the biological component so let your Aqua Clear handle the mechanical filtration component.
Use foam and poly fill to polish the water in the HOB, something you can clean easily and often or replace in the case of poly fill.

TwoTankAmin kind of said this with his bolded initial line. Both the UGF AND the AquaClear provide BOTH mechanical and biological filtration. The mechanical filtration in the AquaClear is more effective, but together they provide tremendous biological filtration. My point was that the foam is better than all the marketed "biomedia", don't waste your money. Probably TTA and many others here already knew that, but it was a revelation to me.

As to whether 20 PPI or 30 PPI is "best" that depends on the fish you keep, if it's overstocked or not, and personal preference. TTA likes 20 PPI. Fine. I like 30 PPI but it does not clog on me. I keep a light fish load. @TwoTankAmin, you've forgotten more than I'll ever know about this hobby, no doubt about that. I've found some good information and some bad information all over the place, that's the nature of technical information and people's reaction to it. And opinions are strong.

I humbly submit that you would come off better if you weren't so doctrinaire. It's like you have the commandments straight from the aquarium gods on your tablets and everyone else is passing around misinformation. Dave Bogert at Aquarium Science comes off the same way. I've found plenty of over-the-top claims at Aquarium Science, but also some very good information. His information is sometimes very useful, however, and I think his page on flitration media is one of those.

Leave a little room in your posts for other opinions (not misinformation, correct that) and you'd be a lot more enjoyable to read--at least for me. The 20 PPI vs 30 PPI is a case in point. Either can work, and work very well, given other factors you may not know about the fish someone keeps and their maintenance practices. I for one, am extremely happy with 30 PPI foam. If I find it clogs too fast, I'll change my mind. But I suspect it won't given my fish, my setup, and my maintenance routine.

You are a superior resource here, I'm lucky to have found this place. I still say you can sound a bit off-putting, though. Your tone is very similar to that of Bogert at Aquarium Science. People like Cory at Aquarium Co-op are (for me) more fun to listen to because they also provide good information, but they are a whole lot less doctrinaire in their presentation, and don't get so uptight about "this is the only right way to approach things."

Not a complaint or trying to start an argument, and I appreciate you very much, and I very much appreciate the incredible amount of research you have done over the years, and your vast experience. Just a little suggestion about tone. Do with it what you will.

 

[JCinPA4]

Wow! This may be the most voluminous post in the history of forum posting. I would just say that if you remove and replace most of the tank water every few days, whatever type of filtration you use will be more than sufficient. Truthfully, there's no mystery to keeping aquarium fish healthy. You just have to be willing to remove and replace a lot of their tank water and do it frequently.

10

True, true. lol I'm just a little OCD by nature, and when I get into something I tend to go much further down rabbit holes than most people. I'm likely more fascinated by the stuff I come across than others are. I'll slow down a bit. This is a new and exciting area for me.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello JC. Your enthusiasm is commendable. Keep up the good work!

10

 

[Rusty_Shackleford28 143]

FWIW I think every media has it's application. Undergravel filters are marvelous filters, maybe unsurpassed in filtration capacity. Best of all it uses what you were going to have in your tank already, substrate.

I'm currently using foam. I have 2@8"x8" 30ppi, 2" thick Poret foam sheets in my canister filter. I use a lot of mechanical filtration before the Poret to keep them free of detritus. I have a sponge prefilter on the intake tube, an internal prefilter in the canister filter, and poly-fill in the bottom tray of the canister.

 

[JCinPA4]

I love overfiltering aquariums. When I used to have them the fish looked like they were swimming in air. The UGF helps with that, but so does the HOB which is why I always use both. From what I've gleaned that Poret foam is THE stuff! Pre-filters on the intake tube are great, too. That's part of the reason I don't worry about the 30 PPI foam blocks in the AquaClear--I run a UGF and I have a 20-25 PPI pre-filter on the intake tube.

 

[TwoTankAmin24]

I am the way I am these days because I have fighting misinformation on forums for a very long time. I keep seeing the same misinformation posted over and over. I tried being Mr Nice guy to no availa and I just have little patience.

I believe in sciemce and the scientific method, One of the most salient pparts of this it that in time what we know may change. It can do so for any number of reasons. One is and edvancement in testing methodologies and equipment.

When it coe to the microorganiisms involved this is a particular challenge. It involve neing abll to take a sample of the biofilm involve and then isolating specific sindividual strais of bacteria etc, and then cyturing them in a lab and then doing the real work. In order for me to make sense out of some of the paoers I read I have needed to contact the PhDs with who, I have corresponded to ask them about the quality of the testing and equi[ment involved. I am unable tpo make such evaluations.

One of the afvances in this area has been the ability to investigate multiple organisms at te same time whichh helps a great deal in the results.

When I started reading Dr. Hovanec et al's research, I had a hard time understading why he found that only about 2% of the microganisms were the ones oxidizing ammonia. It made no sense to me that this number was so small. I finally found out the reason for this when it was discovered some strains of Nitrospira were able to process ammonia staright through to nitrate. Clearly these were doing some of the work attributed to the Nitrosomonas. This is a perfect example of the scientific method working exactly as it should.

I came to read the science because in reading what Google offered it was all to identical with little questioning. So, I chose to look elsewhere. And when I did a whole world of informartion became avaialable. Also, I must give a lot of credit to SeaChem because their ccyliung product contains no notrfying bacteria, But, when I dug deeeper into the site I discovered they knew better and did their best to make sure people did not discover this.

Their piece on the subject was antiquated as it still stated that the primary nitrite oxidizers were Nitrobacter. But that was disporaven by Dr. Hovanec et al who discovered that it was Nitrospira doing it. That fact has been substantiated by many other scientists not connected to either SeaChem or Dr. Hovanec.

Have a read here http://www.seachem.com/Library/SeaGrams/Biofiltration.pdf

I got my BS mostly by taking course which required one write at least two papers to pass the course. One was a mid-term shorter one and then a final in depth report. I gated tests but loved doing the reasearch and writing. Back when I got my degree grades were still letters from A to F. I never got less than an A-. So, reading papers I found using Google Schplar came naturally to me. I paid little attention to spelling etc. in my first or second drafts but did so for the final paper.

So I apologize for my typos here as I am not doing multiple drafts and I often come back to a post and try to fix the the spelling and typos. I learned to type about 65 years ago usung the hunt and peck method. I never learned to touch type. I also have come to believe that my fingers are dyslexic. My brain knows what to type but my fingers betray me.

For this I apologize to all who read what I write form when you see some of my egregious spelling and typing.

I have known for a long time one can keep a tank safe by doing almost daily water changes. it is how I run an H tank. I normally do not use a cycled tank of filtrer for this and change a lot of water. But, water is not free and I do not have workers or the time to use this method. During the summer I typically have a total of 28 tanks running and they are spread out acrtoss two buildings and 5 rooms. I use pumps and hoses often close to 100 feet. Moving water mean using electricity to pull it out of our private well, then running it at temp into holding containers and pumping it from there.

I also pump it out of tanks. We have one of the more expensive electric companies there is, Con Ed. In years past it has not been unusual to have our monthly electric bill be over $1,000. And I have been doing weekly 50%-60% and a but more water changes. The only savigs I get for this is that I do not need to dechlorinate my tap water.

Finally, because I see so much misinformation posted rpeatedly I feel I need to post the facts as much as I can to counter this. The only place I do not used foam media is in a couple of my Eheim canisters. 2/3 went into service before I realized I could replace the Eheim noodle and biomedia with Poret foam. The one canister which has this gets reinsed about every 5 years or so when the output finally starts to slow. The other two get cleaned twice/year.

Unfortunately, I have hit the point where I sometimes lose patience and it makes me become a bit overbearing. it is also why I often ask people to provide some science to support what they post. If anyone can provide current science which contradicts what I have posted i am happy to read the paper and make sure I have not missed something. So far most folks have not been able to this.

 

[JCinPA4]

That's all good. I do appreciate your knowledge and the work you've put into it. And your postings here, I've learned more from you than other simply because of the sheer volume of it.

And I can sense your frustration. I get it. But saying 90% of what is on Aquarium Science is garbage is simply not believable. His site sounds a bit like a rant factory, too. Just don't get wrapped about the axle over 20 PPI vs 30 PPI foam, it's all good. 20 PPI works for you, 30 PPI will likely work for me. We keep different tanks. My aha here was that the expensive biomedia is not as effective as foam. Which you already knew.

I'm a financial advisor with 35 years experience and several professional credentials. At the end of the day, I need to meet the client where they are and not make the perfect the enemy of the good. Believe me I see as much nonsense about investments out there, but I'm flexible enough to let the client deviate from what I deem the perfect if it suits some bias and gets them to take action to better their condition. But in finance, like in keeping fish, there are lots of ways that can work, and arguing over minutiae exhausts me and can irritate the client. If I get Joe to do something I think is near perfect and Sally wants to make some changes that make her feel better that I don't deem ideal, so what? If it gets Sally to take some action that betters her situation, that's a win-win.

Again, I love your passion and your depth of knowledge and your desire to combat bad information. But at the end of the day, if someone like get "gets it" that foam is better biological filtration media than expensive "biomedia", that's the win. Is it a disaster if AquaClear packages their filters with 20-25 PPI prefilters and a 30 PPI block inside it? Probably not, especially in my tanks where I do fairly light to recommended bio loading, it's fine. I've seen tanks in videos that are sorely overstocked, and maybe that's OK, too if the aquarist compensates through over-filtration, and maybe 20 PPI is a must for them. In the end those details are probably not as crucial as getting the "big stuff" right.

Anyway, please hear I'm grateful for all your posting here. If someone is on the right track, for the most part, doing fishless cycling, using Dr. Tim's products, modifying filters to get rid of marketing nonsense, understand the importance of water changes, it's all good. The details of how they manages their stuff is likely not a hill worth dying on.

Trust me, I know how you feel, though. I combat an incredible amount of nonsense my clients "know". My goal is to move them along to something better. Not necessarily perfect. And who am I to say I have all the answers and know what's perfect. I hope that makes sense. But I appreciate you. A lot.

 

[gwand28 145]

In brief, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[GaryE29 144]

In brief, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Should you do so, however, it seems best to keep the results out of your filtration set up. Unless, of course, the cat is composed of poret type sponge.

 

[TwoTankAmin24]

@JCinPA
It really is a small world. I was a broker, a financial planner and ultimately I worked in a division of of my firm which consulted to the large corporate and municipal defined benefit pension plans. But hat was a long time ago. I have been retired for a number of years. 85% of my retirement income is produced from my investments.
I did a lot of number crunching. I got my first PC in 1987 because of my job. So I am inclined to pursue the facts.

Here is what I have learned about cycling. If one has a basic understanding of a few facts, cycling a tank gets way easier. When I set up my first tank in Jan 01, I was pretty ignorant and did it with fish. I had the usual issues we know can occur. When I got done I asked myself if it would be possible to do a cycle using ammonia. When I started researching this I found some of the very early articles on the subject. The result was I never did fish in cycle again.

Back then i used household ammonia and used the old drop/gallon method. I know one can cycle a tank with super market ammonia as long as it doesn't contain scents etc. Over time I discovered ammonium chloride. The two articles I had bookmarked from pre-2000 are no longer any good.
Using Household Ammonia for Humane Cycling of a Tank - gone. It was in two places neither exists.

Here is what the Google AI managed to save re the method. I have colored the incorrect information below in red:


Neither FritzZyme nor Stability contain the needed bacteria and Stability is a bottle of spores and the nitrfiers do not form spores.
The cycle does not stop in lower pH levels. The bacteria need Ammonia as NH3 and as the pH drops towards 6 it becomes more and more Ammonium NH4. The bacteria use NH# very efficiently and have lots of receptors for it. They also have some receptors for NJ4 but they use it less efficiently. This means in acid water cycling takes a lot more time but it does not stop.
Also the above info was the final version of the drops/gallon formula. Early on it was thought one needed to add ammonia daily.
Ideally, we normally want to cycle to be completed as fast as possible. This required warmer water and a pH at 7.0 or above. Of clurse all of the pother things the microorganisms need must be present. This includes oxygen, inorganic carbon and a bit of iron. They are also somewhat photosensitive. So they need to be in the shade so to speak. The ammonia oxidizing archaea are actually more photosensitive than the bacteria.
The above is all coming from the science I have read over the years. I wanted to got back to the Aquarium Scince site and Googled to get the addy, this is the second entry from the results:

Beware of misinformation from this site, I would never ...​

Reddit · r/Aquariums
140+ comments · 4 years ago
However, aquariumscience.org specifically states that their information is based solely on science, but fails to stand up the scrutiny. I'm not ...

If you read how to cycle a tank on the A S site it tell you to put mature cow manure and your urine n the tank- UGH! It also suggest adding fish food which is not a good way to go. Dr. Hovanec makes this clear.


I wrote a lot of stuff after the above. But this site's software like to trash posts before they are even entered. It messed up a lot of what I had writeen and i am just to ticked off to even attempt to redo it. This happens all to often. Maybe I just need to stop wasting my time from now on. Sorry admins but how this place works for writing longer posts with formatting of different kinds is lousy here.

But then I do not have to chose the forum software or to pays for or maintain it. So, maybe I have not right to complain about how easy it is to lose an hour's worth of writing.

(edited to add this silly saying from my school days)

The more you study, the more you learn.
The more you learn the more you know.
The more you know the more you forget.
So why study?