Where is my bacteria?

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crapotm

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
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12
Okay so I'm still in the process of fish in cycling, and I'm at a point I need help. I just did a 60% exchange because the ammonia was around 4ppm, nitrite around 2ppm, and nitrate of 5ppm.
The nitrate is a good sign because I haven't had nitrate readings yet so I'm making progress. But now I'm at the point that I have a cascade 300 hob filter and I'm currently using the replaceable filters. It looks like it needs replaced but I don't want to loose my progress of my nitrate bacteria. Will this bring me back down to zero or is there bacteria in the black filter rather than this one?
Then I see people talking about using their own media, can I use these current ones to do it someway? And if so how?

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Okay so I'm still in the process of fish in cycling, and I'm at a point I need help. I just did a 60% exchange because the ammonia was around 4ppm, nitrite around 2ppm, and nitrate of 5ppm.
The nitrate is a good sign because I haven't had nitrate readings yet so I'm making progress. But now I'm at the point that I have a cascade 300 hob filter and I'm currently using the replaceable filters. It looks like it needs replaced but I don't want to loose my progress of my nitrate bacteria. Will this bring me back down to zero or is there bacteria in the black filter rather than this one?
Then I see people talking about using their own media, can I use these current ones to do it someway? And if so how?

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The nitrifying bacteria is anywhere in the tank which has a higher oxygen level and a place for the bacteria to attach to. This is usually but not only in the filter. Will exchanging your filter material bring you back to zero? No, but the chances are you will deplete the amount of existing bacteria by a large amount. At this point, I would leave the filter alone until you have a 0 reading on your ammonia and nitrite tests. If there is a large amount of "gunk" on your filter pad, just take a small amount of water from your tank and gently shake off or swish the filter pad into the water so that the gunk comes off it then replace it back into the filter.

The bigger issue is that you are still having ammonia present when there are nitrates. When the ammonia level peaks and nitrites are present, the ammonia level should go back to 0 while the nitrites increase and again, the nitrites decrease from their peak when the nitrates start to grow. The fact that you now have a nitrate level when you didn't before shows that you have the 2 stages of bacteria present to convert ammonia to nitrites and nitrites into nitrates. So why do you have ammonia still? The short answer is usually either overfeeding, over population or underfiltering assuming you are not adding ammonia or nitrates via your source water. If none of these are the reason, you need to dig deeper as to why. Ammonia is a sign of a poor or lacking bacteria colony in an established tank. It's a sign of an overwhelmed bed in an uncycled tank ( which is normal).

Hope this helps. (y)
 
Well it could be either the overfeeding based on the amount of excess that came out when I did the water exchange with the gravel vacuum, or an overwhelmed bed so far. It's only been about 6 weeks or so. I followed the directions of the petsmart people instead of digging deep enough on my own. I have a 75 gallon tank, and to start my cycle I had 7 zebra danio, and 5 black skirted tetra. None have died so I've been doing good keeping the levels low enough and when they do spike I change the water.
I am getting another cascade 300 soon because I just figured double the filtration wouldn't be bad and then I could always have a filter that has bacteria if something were to happen.
But is there a way to help keep that bacteria in the filter when I replace it as well?

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Well it could be either the overfeeding based on the amount of excess that came out when I did the water exchange with the gravel vacuum, or an overwhelmed bed so far. It's only been about 6 weeks or so. I followed the directions of the petsmart people instead of digging deep enough on my own. I have a 75 gallon tank, and to start my cycle I had 7 zebra danio, and 5 black skirted tetra. None have died so I've been doing good keeping the levels low enough and when they do spike I change the water.
I am getting another cascade 300 soon because I just figured double the filtration wouldn't be bad and then I could always have a filter that has bacteria if something were to happen.
But is there a way to help keep that bacteria in the filter when I replace it as well?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

If you are going to have 2 filters, you change only 1 of them each time so that there is "seed" for the tank from the other filter. FYI: It's good to have the bacteria bed repopulate themselves every so often. Once established, the bacteria repopulate within hours so there is little need to keep the bacteria in the filter pad you are replacing. Again, this is once the bed is better established so that there are more pockets of bacteria.
As for the overfeeding, it's not a good habit to have. Cut back the amount of food per feeding until you start seeing less then no food in the filter. It is better to feed a small amount of food multiple times per day than 1 big feeding. Once you know how much food to feed per day, break that amount up into 2 or 3 or more feedings per day. For example, 1/2 the amount, or 1/3 the amount or 1/4 the amount ( for four feedings per day), etc. At the end of the day, the fish will have eaten the same amount of food only they will have had time to eat it all day without it being filtered out of the water. (y)
 
Okay yeah that was my plan once I got my second filter.
I will work more now on the feeding though because I've been feeding them twice a day but apparently too much. Maybe I'll switch to 3 times and make it that much smaller to try and keep it as little wasted as possible. Then could I rinse out the filter in tank water to keep from losing too much bacteria until I get a second filter or will that not actually help it out at all either?

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Okay yeah that was my plan once I got my second filter.
I will work more now on the feeding though because I've been feeding them twice a day but apparently too much. Maybe I'll switch to 3 times and make it that much smaller to try and keep it as little wasted as possible. Then could I rinse out the filter in tank water to keep from losing too much bacteria until I get a second filter or will that not actually help it out at all either?

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The less you mess with it the better. If the filter pad is heavily gunked up, you need to free it up to filter the water so under those conditions, you can clean the filter pad. Otherwise, I would leave it alone for now.(y)
 
I haven't changed my filter pads in years, I just rinse them in the water from when I gravel vac and then put them back in. Unless the media for the filter is completely falling apart you don't have to change it, they tell you to on the box so you spend more money on cartridges

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I haven't changed my filter pads in years, I just rinse them in the water from when I gravel vac and then put them back in. Unless the media for the filter is completely falling apart you don't have to change it, they tell you to on the box so you spend more money on cartridges

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Exception being for activated charcoal. Old activated charcoal falls somewhere between useless and toxic.
 
I have one with activated charcoal, from what I've read it just absorbs what it can till it's full, but doesn't become toxic once full, just doesn't absorb anymore.

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I have one with activated charcoal, from what I've read it just absorbs what it can till it's full, but doesn't become toxic once full, just doesn't absorb anymore.

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The thing to watch out for in this situation is if the charcoal bunches up or get's too large a film on it, it can create an anaerobic situation that can become a problem in the tank. This is why it's best to just cut a slit at the top of the pad and remove the charcoal, at least most of it, but keep the pad. (y)
 
Okay so I waited a little too long to do my next exchange and I was at 8.4 ph, between 4-8 ppm ammonia, 1 ppm nitrite, and still 5 ppm nitrate. I did a 75% exchange and I'm at 8.2 ph which is my norm, between 2 -4 ppm ammonia, .25 ppm nitrite, and still right around 5 ppm nitrate (which confuses me a little). But should I do another exchange tomorrow then so I don't stress them out too much today to get the ammonia down? And I've been feeding them smaller amounts 3 times a day and I'm going to feed a little less yet to try and see if that gets my ammonia down to zero since I have nitrate producing bacteria, but why is my nitrite still up too?

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Okay so I waited a little too long to do my next exchange and I was at 8.4 ph, between 4-8 ppm ammonia, 1 ppm nitrite, and still 5 ppm nitrate. I did a 75% exchange and I'm at 8.2 ph which is my norm, between 2 -4 ppm ammonia, .25 ppm nitrite, and still right around 5 ppm nitrate (which confuses me a little). But should I do another exchange tomorrow then so I don't stress them out too much today to get the ammonia down? And I've been feeding them smaller amounts 3 times a day and I'm going to feed a little less yet to try and see if that gets my ammonia down to zero since I have nitrate producing bacteria, but why is my nitrite still up too?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Aquarium Advice mobile app
It's been a while so refresh my memory please. Have you tested your source water for nitrates? It doesn't make sense that you have all 3 ( ammonia, nitrite & nitrate) at the same time unless the nitrates are coming from another source besides the bacteria.

As for the ammonia level falling, when you are doing the water changes you are diluting the ammonia level so your bacteria bed is not really forming "at maximum" to naturally reduce your ammonia level. Unfortunately, when you are cycling the tank with doing water changes, it just delays the end and sometimes that period is a long way away. As for using less food to see if your ammonia goes down, the only way that really works is if there is NO ammonia production and feeding, the fish breathing, and any decay in the tank all cause ammonia to be produced.
 
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