Cycling and cleaning filters

[Omaria]

How can you tell your tank has cycled? Also when do you clean the filter, mine sits under the lid beside the light, the white fluffy material is looking grey. It has been in there since we installed the tank about 4 weeks ago. We started of with 12 fish (yes I know now way too many) since then 5 have died The last one I found dead this morning. :roll: Amonia level has been tested and is ok so is the nitrite/nitrate levels. I keep thinking we be ok from here on but keep finding dead fish One of them is pregnant and I am hoping to have things sorted before she drops them. Some suggestions from more experienced people who have solved similar issues would be very much appreciated

PS Fish were only added 10 days ago since then regular water changes and testing been done. - 6 tetra Neons 2 died, 3 assorted platy, 2 died and 1 male guppy 2 female - 1 died.

[Joshlikesfish]

If you want to clean your filter wool. Rinse it in your aquarium water that you just syphoned out into a bucket. Never clean it in tap water etc as the chlorine will kill it.

HTH

[Caryl]

The filter wool will get progressively darker as it fills with the crud it is stopping from going back into the aquarium. It will also be harbouring good bactreia that will be converting the nasties into good stuff - cycling. I would leave the wool until the water flow returning to the tank is reduced a noticeable amount.

Don't be disheartened by your losses. You now know why they occurred and will not make the same mistake again. Even after levels have been improved you may still get a few deaths from damage done to the fish while the ammonia etc was too high. They are weakened and more susceptible to other problems

Tank has usually cycled in about 4 weeks and when ammonia and nitrIte have dropped to 0 and nitrAte levels are within acceptable levels.

This page has a great little graph that explains it...

http://www.bestfish.com/newtank3.html

[John Rimbauer]

Filtration can be a bit of a rort for pet stores. As Caryl said, from a biological point of view, the more dirty and gunged up the filter media is, the more bacteria are growing in there, and the better the removal of ammonia and nitrite is. This holds true up to the point where the gunge is impeding the flow of water. There will also be a reasonable percentage of biological activity happening in the gravel or substrate in the bottom of the tank.

Given water changes of 20% each week, I'd say it will be cycled for the current number of fish within 4 weeks, 6 at tops. If you add a mass of new fish, there may be another cycle as the bacteria grow in numbers to match the new food source.

A friend of mine was told at the local fish store that she had to replace the white filter wool each week to keep the filter working. (Shame on you, nameless fish store!) This is untrue of course.

For my tanks, I clean the filter only when the flow gets too low. As I have planted tanks, with gravel etc, I cheerfully rinse the canister filters out under the tap and make no effort to use tank water. This hasn't caused any grief for me, but I attribute that to the fact I don't vacuum the gravel and clean the filter at the same time. I've also lost filtration from power cuts for up to 12 hrs at a time with no measurable change in the chemistry of the tank water.

A lot of the guidelines mentioned for fish keeping have wiggle room in them, but if you stick to the info imparted by wiser heads such as Caryl you should have no problems.

[BikBok]

I usually give my filter wool a rinse in the water from waterchange each week to get rid of any excess crud. it gets replaced approx every 8 weeks or so, at which time I also add some TLC (bacteria supplement) but you don't need to worry too much about that. It's just something I like to do.

as for the cycling, you'll know when tank is cycled because ammonia and nitrite readings will be zero and there should be low readings of nitrates. Nitrate levels are kept under control with water changes - and plants help too.

Don't add any more fish just yet , just let things settle in the tank and enjoy them for a while .

[Stella]

I open my cannister filters once every six-12 months. They get the lightests of rinses. As Caryl says, the crud is doing the work.

A really good idea is a putting filter foam over the inlet. This will catch most of the crud and can be washed out weekly. Reduces solid gunge going into the filter and clogging it.

I had a soft sponge filter thingy over mine but it compressed down and slowed flow to the filter. It needs to be fairly sturdy.