Some Serious Problems....

[rabbut]

I'd swap the chemical media out of the mini-canister, and swap in the mature media from your collegue, before switching it on. This will hopefily get you nearly fully cyclied in one go
I use the Tetratec kits, and they are very accurate unless you allow water to get into the regent bottle. This is the only way that I have found to make the kit innacurate.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[waterdrop]

That's an excellent suggestion by rabbut. Think you'll be able to do that?

Sorry for the confusion - that's what I was worried about, that you would have framed media, making it less flexible for swapping in other types of stuff.

Just out of curiosity, which filter has more room for media, the HOB or the mini-cannister?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[frogger009]

Without removing the current media, the HOB has more spare room, however, if I removed the cartridge fromt he mini canister, it would have more room.

 

[Fineas]

Your ammonia readings are not telling the whole story. You are measuring ammonia plus ammonium and the only accurate tests I have found for this situation are those from Seachem.

Follow the above advice with the filter media. Purigen is only safe in well matured tanks, where it does work well. Don't get over fancy with the filter media until you have a tank that has been stable for a few months.

Ken

 

[frogger009]

For transporting this mature media. I am going to pick it up from his house, which is about 40 min - 1 hour from my house. Do I just keep it in some of his tank water?

 

[rabbut]

Treat it like some fish, and it will be fine.

Add enough water to the bag to cover the contents, then fill with as much air as possible, trying to compress the air when you tie the knot. This ensures the media has enough air to last the jorney. Air is the biggest concern, as the bacteria will be fine without food for a few hours. If they run out of oxygen, they will die almost spontaniously at the point of conditions going anairobic (oxygen less)

HTH
Rabbut

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, just double or triple plastic bag it with some of his tank water and consider that having it shake around gently is good, in that that is how a little oxygenated water will make it into the inner parts of the media (since there is no pump pulling volumes of water through it.) The time you mention should be no problem - shouldn't be too much bacteria die-off from that I don't think.

~~waterdrop~~

Oh, and since your mini-cannister has ceramics, you might just want to see whether you could replace some of that with the mature media. Sounds like the soft pad thingy is an entire unit and wouldn't do as well at mechanical filtration if it was cut up. If the mature media "takes" ok, the bacteria should spread via your tank water flow to help start good populations in your HOB I would think.

 

[rabbut]

unless you know what that pad is in terms of the media it is made out of, I'd replace it with mature media. For all you know it could be some other chemical media for removing ammonia, that ould easily mess up this new attempt to get the tank cycled. If you know the media componets of this pad, let up know. If you are un-sure either just sling it, or post a pic for us to look at and hopefuly identify the media from. Sounds to me like a nitrate and phosphate removal pad to me though, and these can interfere with cycles

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, good call rabbut! I was picturing it as an inert sponge pad or something.

I'm also unfamiliar with what a "mini-cannister" would be like.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[frogger009]

The Pad is a a spge like material surrounding activated carbon on the inside

 

[rabbut]

Sponge as in like proper media, or is this sponge a surrounding bag to keep the carbon contained?

If it is basicaly a bag of carbon, I'd stach for future use removing mdications, placing the mature media in it's place.

If it is a sponge pad enclosing carbon, cut it open and remove the carbon. Again, stash for feuture use. Place the mature media in the hole, and place into the filter, trying not to spill the media it contains
HTH
Rabbut

 

[frogger009]

This is the filter

http/www.petstore.com/ps_ViewItem-idprod...1300-tab-5.html

This is the refill

http/www.petstore.com/ps_ViewItem-idproduct-OE1301.html

 

[waterdrop]

The use of carbon (aka activated carbon/charcoal) has changed over the years. For many years is was considered to be a good normal thing to keep it in filters all the time. It turns out that carbon is only good for about 3 days, after which it is ready to be removed. It is an excellent chemical filter and should be kept on the shelf to used in the special cases of removing meds from water after they have been used or to remove yellow tannins caused by too much bogwood or to remove unusual organic smells on a one-time basis. Each time, you just put it in and remove it 3 days to a week later.

The trouble with just telling you to pull the pad and toss it is that by wrapping the carbon in a sponge pad, they have given the pad a mechanical function. If you want to preserve this mechanical (particle and debris removal) function then you would need to devise a sponge to fit in there and sponges of different densities will leave the filter with different flow rates. Probably it would be fine to simply remove the pad and put in mature media in its place, but it still might be simpler to replace some of the ceramic rings with the mature media. It might depend on the shape and type of material the mature media is in.

You definately want to get the mature media and work it in if you possibly can, that's very important. You might want to keep working on the problem of the ideal way to do it. You may get some more members here that will read through this and analyze it some more for you. I've had a look at the little Tom filter and it looks pretty nice - hopefully you will come up with the right media situation - sorry not to be more definitive but I don't want to steer you wrong.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[frogger009]

It is a decent little filter for the price. No Fluval ofcourse. But like I said I have limited room, plus I bought it mainly as a support filter for my main filter as the mini only changed 80 GPH, while my HOB changes 170 GPH. On the activated carbon, I dont know what to do. Both my filters have pre made cartridges with the carbon built into my mechanical filtration, so I cant really just remove the carbon. I am sure it loses it effectiveness after awhile. I suspose I will see how big the media is from my co-worker and see where it would fit best.

How long would it take for the mature media to cycle a loaded tank? I suspose it depends on how big it is ofcourse...

 

[waterdrop]

The average time to cycle a tank with fish in is 4 weeks. Adding mature media should make that much faster but in truth the actual results are all over the place. Sometimes it is very successful and the mature media acts like a mature filter immediately, with zero ammonia and nitrites showing on your tests. Other times it seems to falter a bit but then takes over rather quickly. Still other times it seems to still take weeks or the mature media seems to die or hardly help at all. But most of the time it works and helps a lot - many reports of that here on TFF.

~~waterdrop~~