10g with Aquaclear - how often to rinse sponge?

[99RedSi]

I have 10g, non-planted tank with an Aquaclear Mini, 2 sponges and some Fluval Bio-Rings in-between.

I do weekly water changes and I always rinse the bottom-most sponge pretty good in tank water that I've removed into a bucket. I then swap the bottom sponge for the top, keeping the bio-rings in the middle.

My question is, am I doing any harm (causing a "mini-cycle", etc) by rinsing the sponge? Do I need to do it every week or is it overkill?

I've had most of my fish die off over a period of months and my water parameters were fine, so I'm trying to figure out what did them in with my routine, potentially.

But outside of the fish deaths, what do you think?

 

[BillD]

Your routine sounds good. gunk in the filter reduces it's efficiency by reducing flow.How much water to you change weekly, and how many fish in the tank? That may be the key to your problems rather than the filter routine, which sounds perfect to me. A 10 gal is a small tank, so it requires more attention than a larger tank if you have high stocking levels. Personally, I generally try to change 50% weekly, regardless of tank size, and more if they are heavily stocked such as growout tanks. I believe in large changes, especially on smaller tanks. I don't believe you are creating a mini cycle by cleaning youe filter the way you do. Consider this; if squeezing out the filter to remove solids were to wash out the bacteria, how would they stay on the media with the water flowing through it? IME it is bad advice to tell people to leave the sponges dirty.

 

[Guest]

one thing i would change... keep the biorings on the top so they are exposed to more air. I have 2 aquaclear 50's on my tank and i keep the sponges on the bottom and my biomedia on the top and i've never had a problem. When i do a water change i just rinse it in my sink where the old tankwater is draining (i use a python) And i clean my filters out about every 2 weeks to every month.

As long as you rinse the sponges in old tank water then you shouldn't have a problem. Sometimes if you rinse the sponges in tapwater the chlorine can kill some of the bacteria but i have rinsed mine in both tank and then in tapwater with no problems. But i ALWAYS rinse the ceramic rings in old tankwater only because that's where the majority of your bacteria can grow.. and of course i keep that on top so it doesn't get gunked up and its exposed to air for maximum growth.

 

[Tiffi]

Clean the filter when the flow becomes reduced.

 

[99RedSi]

Thanks everyone for the tips and advice.

I DID have a large bio-load in the tank at one time but they all died off (except for 2) !

I had:

1 Killifish
2 Oto's
6 Cory Cats

I'm down to 1 cory and the Killifish (which I love!).

I guess I'll up the water changes to 50% and get an oto. I'll move the bio-rings to the top - good point about them being exposed to the air. I need to start rinsing them as well during my routine.

I'm thinking of converting this to a 15g and doing a planted tank but I really want to figure out this fish death problem so it doesn't follow me .

Something else that I noticed about my routine: I fill up one of my 5g buckets full of water to put into the tank the NEXT time I do the change. By that time alot of the chemicals in the water are gone - is that even correct? I read that somewhere and have been doing that from the beginning. Sometimes little basement critters (small) get into the water and I'm wondering if I syphoned some of that water into the tank during a water change, not realizing or knowing at the time.

Just a thought... so as of a few days ago, during my last water change, I began to fill the tank with fresh tap water and the Wardley conditioner.

We'll see....

 

[Guest]

As long as you use the water conditioner with the tapwater your fine. Letting it sit out the chlorine will get out, but if there is chloranamine or other chemicals in the water it's not going to come out just sitting, which is why the water conditioner is so good.

About your deaths... what may have happened was your tank wasn't cycled when you first started.. therefore all the fish died while the ammonia and nitrite was spiking. Do you have a test kit? How long has the tank been established? Do you know about the nitrogen cycle?

 

[99RedSi]

As long as you use the water conditioner with the tapwater your fine. Letting it sit out the chlorine will get out, but if there is chloranamine or other chemicals in the water it's not going to come out just sitting, which is why the water conditioner is so good.

About your deaths... what may have happened was your tank wasn't cycled when you first started.. therefore all the fish died while the ammonia and nitrite was spiking. Do you have a test kit? How long has the tank been established? Do you know about the nitrogen cycle?

I came back to the hobby in Oct 2004 and setup this 10g tank. About 5 years ago I kept a 29g and 45g planted tank without fish death issues. I lived elsewhere at the time and used well-water for the tank water/water changes. The 10g started with 4 pygmy cories but they all eventually died within 6-7 months. I also tried keeping sunset (dwarf) gouramis but they all died within the first week. I figured they were just finicky! I tested my water and I didn't see any nitrites/ammonia.

As far as the 10g is concerned, I let it cycle with ammonia for a few weeks, testing for nitrites, etc. After the initial ammonia, and subsequent nitrite spike, I began seeing nitrates. I then added fish and they generally lived without issues, but I did have a few deaths here and there. I didn't give it much concern since it was spotty. In June 2005 I added the 6 corys and have gone through about 4-6 oto's since May/June, with the longest lasting a little over a month.

The strange thing is that with a few of these fish deaths, I've been completely unable to find the corpse! That freaks me out but I suppose the body was eaten by the other fish? I didn't think corys did that but maybe they all do?

I'll test my water again tomorrow to make sure. I need to go and get a few otto's anyways to keep my tank algae free. I recently purchased some Crypts (Wendtii) that are doing well but now algae has taken hold somewhat.

Thanks for the help

 

[Guest]

oh i was just making sure that there wasn't a problem with the cycle but it sounds like you know what your doing!
I've had a few deaths like that where the fish just dissapears... i think everyone does. weather they took the "leap" or got sucked in the filter, or eaten by other fish, you'll never know.

I've had a few times where my water was perfect and id add a new fish and they'd all die... sometimes it may be the store you get them from and ive gone to different stores and had no problems. Sometimes it's hard to find a cause :?