Ammonia Jumping... Wrong Size Filter?? Please Help!!

[janky]

So I dunno what's going on with my tank. I had a 55 gal and upgraded to a 75. When swapping the driftwood, cave, and fish, we transported them in a temp tank. We sucked out all the crap from the bottom of the 55 g and kept 4 buckets of decent water from it to put into the 75.

When filling the 75, we had used the 4 buckets of the old tank's water, and probably 3-4 of new, treated water.

It's been about a week and I'm getting ammonia up to 0.4 ppm!

I also have no clue what range of tank size my filter will work on. It's the same one I had on the 55, but I'm not sure if it works on the 75.

It's a "Marineland Penguin 160 with Bio-Wheel"

I've googled it, tried numerous different searches, and nothing comes up. It's just cartridges for sale. I went to Marineland's website directly, and apparently they no longer make it.

Can anyone help me out here? Any ideas on what tank size this filter can work for?


I'm staying on top of water changes, but I'm pretty concerned that it's gone up this high.

Is my tank just cycling again because it's a brand new tank?

 

[LyndaB]

From what I've been able to find on-line, which isn't much, this filter is really meant for much smaller tanks. Sounds like it might work up to 20 gallons or so.

You might want to consider a canister on your 75. I have the Rena XP3 and love it.

 

[sandmaan]

I also did some search to help you but it seems like the filter is not enough for your new tank try a bigger one what I normally do is buy a filter thats one step ahead of the recommended one so if upgrade some thing it want give much trouble.

 

[janky]

Ok. That does take some stress off my shoulders. I was worried

If I buy a new filter will the tank cycle all over again???

 

[LyndaB]

Not if you are able to utilize the existing media in the new filter. For example, when I upgraded from a 46 gallon to a 75 gallon, I was switching from a HOB filter to my canister. I just took all the media from the HOB and crammed it inside the baskets in the canister. Instant cycle. Or, if you can't use the existing media, then you can hang the old filter beside the new filter for at least a month. That said, your existing filter can't keep up, so this is really something you need to jump on.

 

[janky]

Yeah. I will be buying a new one within a couple of hours. We're heading to the LFS now.

I'll probably just run them side by side unless I can fit that bio-wheel in the canister

Since the old filter is for smaller tanks, I'll use it on my gf's 20 g tall so we can free up her small filter for our nano reef project tank! Sometimes having too many tanks comes in handy!! haha

 

[LyndaB]

You can laugh, but I fit my biowheel in my canister without a problem. It's amazing how much stuff you can get in those stacking baskets.

 

[HeatherW]

yep - pretty much what everyone else has said. I have a penguin 150 on my 20gallon tank. I would rec a aquaclear 110 for this one and then run them side by side like you said.

good luck!

 

[janky]

Well, I bought an aquaclear rated for 20-50 gallons and was going to just run the two simultaneously. This morning the aquaclear filter just randomly decided to not work anymore.
I'm going to return it, and I talked to someone on a local fish forum that's selling a Rena XP3 for $65. I'm just going to go pick that up later tonight and be done with this fiasco

 

[janky]

Found an even better deal and got an aqueon quiet flow HOB for up to 90 g tanks!

Quick question; I fit the bio-wheel from the old one inside of it... how long should I leave it in there to seed before I can take it out?
Is this ok to do, and just run the one filter with the entire bacteria-covered wheel from my old one?

The two filters running simultaneously created so much current I could barely feed them lol

 

[LyndaB]

If the old bio-wheel fits, why even change it out? I would watch for mini-cycles, but you should be good.

 

[janky]

Well, the idea was to utilize the old filter in a different tank.
If I move the old filter w biowheel to my gf's 20 g tall, I can use that filter from her tank (meant for 10-20 g) on my 12 g hex that I've been wanting to start a saltwater set up on

I just want to make sure that the new filter on my 75 g has had time to absorb the beneficial bacteria from the biowheel and develop it's own, then I can repeat the "seeding" process with that filter and some media from the 20 g

lol, im trying to be efficient!

 

[HeatherW]

That should be fine. I would leave it in for at least a good month.
Got an idea from other users on here - I now always turn off my filter when I feed

 

[awilson133]

Found an even better deal and got an aqueon quiet flow HOB for up to 90 g tanks!

Quick question; I fit the bio-wheel from the old one inside of it... how long should I leave it in there to seed before I can take it out?
Is this ok to do, and just run the one filter with the entire bacteria-covered wheel from my old one?

The two filters running simultaneously created so much current I could barely feed them lol

I always turn my filter and air pumps off when I feed them and turn em back on when there done