Filtration - Biological & Mechanical - Can You Have Too Much?

[monkey185]

Hello Fine Fishkeepers,

I've been lurking your forums for quite a while now but I finally have the need to make a post, and I do apologize in advance as it will be a long one. I've recently setup a small 6G planted tank; I've never had live plants before as most of my previous fish experience is with large salt water/reef tanks.

The tank right now contains:

3x Neon Tetras I know these are typically kept in larger tanks however they were given to me and this is the only tank I currently own)
2 x Java Fern
1 x Hornwort
1 x Amazon Sword Plant
1 x Pet Smart plant whose name escapes me
1 x Small DW (there's another piece soon to be added, as soon as it finally sinks..)

Essentially, I got the tank, setup it up and began a fishless cycle(my first). The cycle went well, some live plants were added about half way through the cycle and appear to be doing just fine, aside from the initial issues with API root tabs.

I've since added the Tetras and they appear happy, doing their Tetra stuff, however I've become concerned with the biological filtration. The filter is essentially a small Penguin. When I had originally setup the tank, I noticed that the pegs to hold the bio-wheel in place were not level and it is heavily tilted to one side. I attempted to correct this issue but I ended up messing with the bio-wheel pegs and it stopped spinning. I figured fine, I'll just replace the bio-wheel with additional biological filtration.

I bought a bag of AC BioMax insert and placed it in the unused portion of the filter(C) along with a small additional filter cartridge (A) and some activated carbon(D). Here's an image so you'll get a better idea what I'm talking about:

A. Tetra Whisper Filter Cartridge (Addition)
B. Original Filter Cartridge
C. AquaClear Biomax Filter Insert(Inside of a mesh bag).
D. Activated Carbon (Inside of a mesh bag).
E. Bio Wheel

After adding the fish I was actually able to get the Bio-Wheel spinning again, however I'd like to keep the additional Bio Max media if it's beneficial, however it's been approximately a month since I've added the AC Biomax and it doesn't seem to have any bacterial colonies. Exhibit A. (Tetra Cart.) is showing clear signs of bacterial growth(Discoloration), but the BioMax ceramic bits don't appear to have any color change that would indicate bacterial activity. My assumption is that either the beneficial bacteria need access to oxygen and thus will not live completely submerged or that the way that they're submerged, they receive far less water flow and the water that does pass by is already pre-filtered which is inhibiting bacterial growth.

I'd like to keep the Tetra Filter Cartridge in place as it helps pick up the numerous bits of plant debris, I don't see any issues with water flow, nothing is going through the overflow and the wheel is now spinning again.

My ammonia levels are fine (I haven't been able to test other parameters yet as my master test kit is en-route) I just want to make sure that I'm not just wasting my time with the BioMax as it doesn't appear to be doing anything. The only additional bio-load to be added would be a ghost shrimp or two, provided I can actually find somewhere that has them in stock.

On a side note, is there any way to dispose of Hortwort’s needles that litter the substrate aside from syphoning ?

Thanks for reading this novel of a first post!

 

[bud29]

to the forum!

You really aren't hurting anything by having extra biomedia in there. I wouldn't expect a lot of bacteria, since the bioload is light (neons are fairly clean fish). Hornwort needles can be a pain, but I've always used a siphon to get them out. Not sure of other methods.