Newbie question on WC

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Ac30fan

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Dec 31, 2012
Messages
119
Location
Chicago IL
Hi forum, 2 related questions:

1) How do I make sure no harm comes to my bb during water change? Is there an acceptable period that water is not cycling thru a filter? Every manual I read says to turn off power during routine maintenance & wc.

If I keep media wet in a bucket of tank water, is that enough to keep bb alive for 20 min? I've seen this on several YouTube clips

2) I just ordered a Fluval 206 to act as primary filter on a fishless cycled tank that is almost ready for fish. My bio-wheel 200 will be aux/backup filter & used for a hospital tank.

Can I seed the Fluval with media from the bio-200 & not compromise my cycle?

Is it best to clean Fluval chambers at diff times of the month, so filter can keep running during cleaning?

Thx

B
 
Hi forum, 2 related questions:

1) How do I make sure no harm comes to my bb during water change? Is there an acceptable period that water is not cycling thru a filter? Every manual I read says to turn off power during routine maintenance & wc.

If I keep media wet in a bucket of tank water, is that enough to keep bb alive for 20 min? I've seen this on several YouTube clips

2) I just ordered a Fluval 206 to act as primary filter on a fishless cycled tank that is almost ready for fish. My bio-wheel 200 will be aux/backup filter & used for a hospital tank.

Can I seed the Fluval with media from the bio-200 & not compromise my cycle?

Is it best to clean Fluval chambers at diff times of the month, so filter can keep running during cleaning?

Thx

B

Hey there. I am a noob also but have experience with water changes. I do at least 50% water change every Saturday and vacuum half the substrate. My tank is a 37 gal.
1)To make sure no harm comes to your bb you need to dechlorinate your tap water. This removes the chlorine that is toxic to your hard earned bb. The way I do this is use my water changer to siphon and vacuum the rocks. Once I have got 50% out I start putting water back in and that is the time you put your water conditioner in. I always put enough conditioner to treat the whole tank. I only turn off my filters when I am working on them. Or if the water gets too low for the filter to keep running. If no water is pumping through it is likely it will ruin the pump. And your bb should live through any water change as long as it doesn't last excessively long.

2) Not too sure about this one. But I would wait to make sure this cycle is complete before taking some from an existing filter.
 
Hi forum, 2 related questions:

1) How do I make sure no harm comes to my bb during water change? Is there an acceptable period that water is not cycling thru a filter? Every manual I read says to turn off power during routine maintenance & wc.

If I keep media wet in a bucket of tank water, is that enough to keep bb alive for 20 min? I've seen this on several YouTube clips

2) I just ordered a Fluval 206 to act as primary filter on a fishless cycled tank that is almost ready for fish. My bio-wheel 200 will be aux/backup filter & used for a hospital tank.

Can I seed the Fluval with media from the bio-200 & not compromise my cycle?

Is it best to clean Fluval chambers at diff times of the month, so filter can keep running during cleaning?

Thx

B

For my water changes, I just leave the filter going. Just don't take out so much that the filter isn't pumping out water and you should be fine. Make sure you use dechlorinator before adding the new water. If you put in new water and then dechlorinate, you expose everything to chlorine which is bad for the fish and bad for bb.

Seeding your new filter will speed up the cycle. It won't compromise it. It will help it along.

As for cleaning, don't change the inserts until they are falling apart. I'm not familiar with a Fluval filter. Cleaning them off is just swishing them around good in old tank water. Don't use tap water. It will kill your bb.
 
Hi forum, 2 related questions:

1) How do I make sure no harm comes to my bb during water change? Is there an acceptable period that water is not cycling thru a filter? Every manual I read says to turn off power during routine maintenance & wc.

If I keep media wet in a bucket of tank water, is that enough to keep bb alive for 20 min? I've seen this on several YouTube clips

2) I just ordered a Fluval 206 to act as primary filter on a fishless cycled tank that is almost ready for fish. My bio-wheel 200 will be aux/backup filter & used for a hospital tank.

Can I seed the Fluval with media from the bio-200 & not compromise my cycle?

Is it best to clean Fluval chambers at diff times of the month, so filter can keep running during cleaning?

Thx

B
1) I turn off the filter only when my water level goes below the power head so it doesn't suck air.
2)I have no doubt you could seed it without compromising it as long as you're media doesn't dry out.
You could clean at different times of the month, but you would have to log that, and i guess it would be too complicated:/
 
Thanks for the helpful advice. Ok 1 more related question:

Back when I had a tank before, if I was doing a large 50% wc I would siphon all 15 gallons out before replacing, which obviously required turning off all filters etc.

So, assuming I understand the responses here, you're saying its ok to leave my filters on, and remove a few gallons at time and then replace same amount? If I remove 3 gallons, I would repeat 5 times until a total of 15 gallons are removed/replaced?

Is this how most people do a major WC?
 
Normally, you would siphon out the whole amount at once and replace it all with dechlorinated water. Unless that much takes it low enough that your filter will not work. You shouldn't have to turn your filter off to do a water change.
 
Normally, you would siphon out the whole amount at once and replace it all with dechlorinated water. Unless that much takes it low enough that your filter will not work. You shouldn't have to turn your filter off to do a water change.

Ok thanks. That's what I'd always done, and for a moment there I thought I'd been doing it wrong!
 
If its a hob filter then there should be enough water left in the compartment that the bacteria could live in for quite some time. If its a fishless cycle you could switch your filter media to the new filter then add 3ppm pure unscented ammonia and see if the ammonias down to 0ppm by morning.
 
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