Fish Tank Filters....Ive already read past posts, and I guess Im still a bit confused..?

Question

I've had a 10gal tank for about 7 weeks now, Silly me thought it cycled about 2weeks ago, but I think it is now, Nitrates are good but ammonia is up just a little..50. Now my tank is cloudy and Ive lost 2 fish.(Ive done water changes) #1 When do I change the filter for the first time? #2 Is the cloudiness the "good bacteria", thus I shouldnt worry about it too much? #3 Should I save the filter once I change it, so that I will have a source of "good bacteria" or will the new filter accumulate the same good bacteria?? Sorry if the questions seem lame, I'm a new enthusiast. Thanks in advance.

The filter is a Hush10, it has a "charcol" insert and a "white, cloth like insert"

maybe not "charcol" but it's black and looks like a "coarse" sponge"

Answer 1

Welcome to the hobby!

It sounds like your tank is coming along fairly well to be honest, even though you have lots 2 fish recently. That ammonia level is still a bit high, I would suggest you do another water change to reduce it even more. As you know, the tank will eventually cycle and take care of the problem for you, but you need to keep it a bit lower until it does.

You shouldn't change the filter until the cycle is fully complete and really I would wait another week or so after that. Don't try to keep the old filter cartridge, the new one will accumulate the bacteria very quickly and the bacteria in the old cartridge will die quite quickly without a constant source of ammonia, nitrites and oxygen... and staying wet of course.

It certainly sounds like the cloudiness is just a bacteria bloom and yes, that's very common. It's so common it even has a name: New tank syndrome. It will go away before long at all.

The only lame question is a dumb question and the only dumb question is the one you don't ask. Please always ask, it's the best way to learn abut your new hobby!

Hope that helps

MM

Answer 2

I've written something on filtration which I would like you to read, It's incomplete but it should help you understand alittle more about filtration. The link is here ....... http://www.arofanatics.com/members/dragonfly_sg/aboutfilters/

Normally if you still have significant Ammonia when cycling it mean that the process is incomplete. But there is also another possibility. Since it have been seven week, the process should in most circumstances be completed, that leads me to believe that you still have Ammonia reading because you own a filter that is not rated for your tank. It could be the flow rate is too low or that the filter does not have enough bio-media hosting capacity thereby leading to Ammonia not being fully consumed. You might need to get a bigger or better filter.

Anyway, to answer you question ......

1. A good filter should have two media in it. mechanical and biological. When you clean your filter you should only replace or wash the mechanical filtration media. Therefore it doesn't matter when you clean the filter, it shouldn't in most case effect your bio-logical filtration capability.

It you are using those internal filters with a single sponge media as it's mechanical and bio media, you can still clean your sponge once it's dirty (filter performance drops) by rinsing the sponge in a pail that contains water that you take from your tank. This prevent the bacterial from getting kill by the chlorine or chloramaine if you use tap water. Personally I wouldn't clean these filter within the first 4 weeks of cycling, but it shouldn't be too dirty in this period as we should limit the number of fishes in the tank during cycling.

2. As the mentioned in the earlier post, the cloudiness is cause by good bacterial and should be harmless to your fishes. But the reason you're having this bloom is because there is too much Ammonia in your tank water and that's bad for the fishes. Do more frequent water change to reduce the Ammonia in the water until your filter becomes established and you don't get the cloudiness anymore.

3. I don't understand what you mean here. I assume you are referring to the media which you are replacing and not the filter itself. Some filter uses filter wool as filtration media and these wool needs to be replace when it get choke with waste. What I do is to stuff this filters (overhead filters) with 2 layer of filtering media. When the top layer get dirty or choke I remove the top layer and throws it away. I then take bottom layer up and lay a brand new layer of wool on the bottom and place the old bottom layer on top of that. Thats help me to retain at least some Bacterial with this type of setup. Hope this is what you're asking.


And don't worry about asking questions, at one time or another we've all been beginner.

Answer 3

well you should change the filter every month
if the ammonia levels keep rising maybe change your filter every 3 weeks aswell it determines waht kind of filter you have if its a takes carttridges monthly aswell boxfilters if its takes inserts derection should be on the box when to change umm
and on the cloudy water i not quite sure waht it might be becuz when i change my water its slightly cloudy but soon goes away
i do believe its bateria the good kind /dont keep it the new one will acumualte bacteria unless its a box filter then save some of the floss and re use it

Answer 4

Here's some links to good info.
http://www.firsttankguide.net/
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html